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It would be a real understatement to say a lot has happened since I did this rather frantic urgent plea for help in getting
my cats adopted out or placed in new homes or in shelters/pet rescue sanctuaries.
My mother and I had been served a Ten Day Notice to Cure on March 2, 2006 by our landlord. We were being threatened with
eviction by our landlord. My mother who was ill, having been diagnosed with esophageal cancer was in no physical or mental
form to handle the issue of trying to manage how to avoid the eviction issue. It was virtually up to me to handle everything,
including the continuance of acting as my mother's caregiver.
I tried to secure legal help by a lawyer who not only specialized in tenant and landlord issues but who was knowledgeable
in pet issues. I did call several such lawyers, but their fees were too exorbitant for us as my mother only had her Social
Security and pension money, and I was on SSI Disability.
Thankfully I was able to secure a wonderful lawyer through the legal services of the elderly, so technically speaking she
was the only one represented, not I, but I was able to get a representative of the Adult Protective Services to intervene
in my behalf.
We were to endure several court appearances --a hardship due to my mother's health and me with my own problem and disability--but
our first appearance was on May 8, 2006...to be followed by many more. In the meantime I made a frenzied scramble for the
aid of any rescuer or no-kill shelter that could take in our cats. One wonderful woman, of the Paradise Garden Animal Haven
in Woodhull, NY took in two cats, Missy and Winema on March 14, 2006. Animal Haven of Flushing, NY had also taken two cats,
Matoaka and Kola on March 11, 2006.
Then the race began...our lawyer wanted us to bring the population of cats down to no more than two, which had been the allowable
number stated in the stipulation agreement my mother had signed on June 11, 2001, when we were being threatened with eviction
first time round. We were urged to start having Animal Care And Control come in to take the cats, something I didn't want
to do and dreaded as I knew that was a certain death sentence to the cats...lets face it AC&C does not have a good reputation.
So this procedure began regrettably on April 18, 2006. Thankfully a pet rescuer who I was in contact with was tracking my
cats as they went in and was able to rescue out ten of the eighteen cats that did go in...Sadly their were eight who weren't
so lucky and were put down almost right away, mainly due to age.
Then I was lucky that two other rescuers were able to take in many of the cats, and on May 1, 2006 ten more cats were saved
and were to begin new homes at sanctuaries in up-state NY. We still had a lot of cats, that is more than the two allowed,
and almost at the last minute one of the same rescuers agreed to take in the remainder of the cats on May 19, 2006
My mother and I had more court appearances, on May 25, June 27, 2006 and August 10, 2006...we were to have another on August
31, 2006 but on August 11th, just a day after a court appearance my mother had to go into the hospital. She had an aggressive
form of pneumonia and was in a medicated induced coma for almost two weeks and was hooked up to life support and respirators
--she never recovered, and on August 27, 2006 at about 1:30 p.m. passed away.
The court case was by no means over with even with the passing of my mother, and continued to drag on, why I don't know as
the situation was now under control and had been by several months...the landlord no longer had a case against me, but the
case still continued until October 18, 2006, when finally it was resolved and I wasn't evicted.
I now only have two cats, Kissy and Pyewacket, the only two left of the many. If I could in all honesty I wouldn't mind having
just a few more...the last time this apartment of mine saw only two cats was in 1968!! So it does seem strange to have only
two. In all the years, it never occurred to me, that my mother had all along demonstrated hoarder personality traits...which
only became worse as she grew older. I do miss many of the other cats, as they weren't at fault here, they were the innocent
victims of a person, my mother, who thought a lifestyle with so many cats was normal, while I lived far too many years in
a living hell and nightmare. None of it had to happen in the first place if only my mother had taken the unfixed cats to
a vet to be spayed/neutered --I couldn't due to my disability--there had been nothing wrong or preventing my mother to do
so however. During those years, I felt helpless due to my own disability problems and was to spend my every waking moment
trying to take care of the cats, and keep the apartment clean, while my mother did nothing. It took me many years, I admit,
for ME to wake up and realize there were a of emotional and psychiatric problems with my mother, but then I was struggling
myself coping with an anxiety/panic disorder with agoraphobia, which at one time I was completely housebound.
Now I'm moving on...there's still much to do in my life, and I am making the moves to get my life back on track again, and
to overcome my disability, and now I think I can succeed in doing so.
I was thinking of eliminating this website as I thought it no longer necessary to have it...but I just can't, for you see,
I view it as a tribute to those cats I formerly had, and a life I no longer am living. As I've mentioned, those years were
a living hell and nightmare for me, I was in chronic fear all the time of being "discovered" as to how many cats we had...I
lived the fear, while my mother, quite frankly not only viewed our lifestyle as normal, but was living in a world of denial
of any wrong doing--- She also lived in a perpetual twilight zone existence. I did try to get her serious help for her emotional
problems, and she was seeing a therapist, but one, she was a good actress to the outside world, and came across so differently
to the outside world, and two, she never signed a proxy in the five years she saw the therapist, therefore I wasn't able to
intervene...she didn't sign a proxy until the last few months of her life, and by then my intervention in the matter was too
little, too late.
I remain in constant contact with those pet rescuers who were so wonderful in taking in my cats, and the good news they are
doing great now...
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