Alexa Update

happy tail here for Alexa!

Her mom writes: Alexa was rescued from a hoarding situation and subsequently had to undergo surgery to remove her eye. When she first came to live with us she was scared and shy. She spent a few weeks hiding behind our washing machine... Gradually she began to come out to explore, but had no trust in people. With a lot of love (and food) she has become the cat that she is today.

Fast forward 3 years, Alexa is outgoing, happy and has no fear of anything. She loves attention and will gladly snuggle up with anyone who will let her. Her biggest fear now is that someone will forget to feed her…although that is probably not possible as she has become quite the talker. Having only one eye does not slow her down either. Alexa is the best spricket (spider-cricket)/rogue mouse killer in the land. She is always leaving us presents around the house.

  

She has really blossomed into a sweet and loving princess (although if you ask her she thinks she’s the queen).

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A Year since the Hoader's

It has been about a year since Joa’s Arc volunteers became involved in the hoarding case that got us in over our heads and on to Animal Planet's TV show Confessions.

Looking back, it is absolutely incredible to think of everything that went on and all the help that came forward enable us collectively to save those kitties. We were able to save so many cats and get them into homes.

I don't think I need to say this, but I will - not all hoarded pets are anywhere near as lucky:
- House Of Dead Animals In Camden ... Dog And Cat Carcasses Were Found In A Home. It Could Be An Example Of "animal Collector Syndrome"
- Woman faces cruelty charges after 20 animals she housed in Oldmans Township horse trailer burn to death
- Hillside woman hoarding cats previously had 122 felines removed from house
- Hoarding - 200 cats found dead. East Orange, NJ

Here are The Top 5 Ways to Help an Animal of a Hoarder and the animals suffering with them.

The teamwork, assistance, kindness and effort put into that house and those cats ... it's just overwhelming to think about. We still hear from people who took cats from that house and to see the cats that were once filthy and/or shy doing so well is amazing. They're in homes with toys, clean water, people loving them, rescues working to socialize them, etc.

During this time of independence, I think it's a good idea if we all celebrate the cats who are now safe and the wonderful people involved in getting them out and ensuring a better life for them!

Thank you, truly, to everyone involved!!

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Midge

It is with a heavy heart that I'm writing to let you know of Midge's passing.

Midge (AKA smooshie face) was one of the cats from the hoarder's house that Joa’s Arc was involved with saving.

Spotted several times (initially in photos taken in one of the upstairs bedrooms and then later in person), this little kitten acquired the nickname "Smooshie Face" for obvious reasons. However, every time we went to look for her to remove her, she could not be found ... even on the day of the big evacuation!

Thankfully, mid-September, Joa’s Arc's Jen S "sprung" smooshie face from the house and gave her a real name - Midge. Why? Well, we were told that Midge, due to inbreeding perhaps, was the cat version of a dwarf which was displayed in her with tiny legs with big joints, an oddly shaped head and just, generally, being a tiny girl. Midge was about the size of a kitten, but at least 8 months old. She also turned out to have more than just a smooshie face - she was a big smoosh all together and that's what she'd do whenever you picked her up - smoosh into you. We even took her to a fundraiser - a dog walk - and she smooshed into everyone that wanted to meet her.

Unfortunately, these same genetic features that caused her small size also factored into her short life...

Even with the knowledge Midge would not have a very long life, our wonderful friend Pam (a vet tech) decided to adopt Midge. The above photo is Midge on her way to work (the vet's) with her mom) and below is a recent photo of Midge smooshed in with two of her "siblings".

Here are some words from Midge's adopter, Pam, from just a couple weeks ago:
"She is doing absolutely fantastic. She has settled in nicely and is thriving. She does have some liver issues and fluid in her abdomen, but I am using natural supplements and chinese herbs mixed into her food daily to keep her as healthy as possible. Her favorite thing is to follow us around the house and do her little silent meow to let us know that she wants her food bowl filled. The little porker has gained 1/2 a pound & is now just under 4lbs total! My husband Rick has also given her several new nicknames - ShortRound, Pudge Girl & Miss Piggy! Despite her rough start, she is thriving and we are so pleased to have her as a part of our family!"

Even though it was for a short time, we know that Midge knew comfort, a full belly and all the love she wanted thanks to Pam and her family. For that, we are so very grateful.

RIP, Midgie girl.

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An Update From Alexa

Guess what we got in our inbox today? A wonderful email from Alexa's mom, Kelly, and a few words from Alexa herself! Here's what she had to say:

Hi,

It’s Alexa – I just wanted to let you know how I am doing. Life is great! After spending a few days hiding (I was pretty scared) I found out just how fun life can be. There are so many neat places to explore and fun things to play with. My favorite toys are my catnip mouse which I can throw into the air and catch again (although sometimes I throw it too high and it gets stuck on a high shelf and someone has to get it for me) and my laser pointer. I follow that little red dot all over the house. My new parents have found that the pointer is especially useful when I sit in front of the tv and swat at the screen to play with the people in there. Oh! I almost forgot about my newly discovered built in toy – my tail! That is so much fun, but I just can’t seem to catch it - I’m still working on that one. I have also found my voice and I am not afraid to use it. I learned that when I yell (which I am doing a lot of nowadays) someone will sit down and give me attention! How nice it is to be spoiled.

I am very adventurous now. I love to explore and find new places to sit. My new favorite place is the top of the door. As you can see only having one eye is not making any difference to me at all – I can still do everything that any other cat can do! It is pictures like this one that prompted my nickname “headlight”.

I have discovered just how comfortable life can be. I have a bed to sleep in, but lately I prefer to sleep in bed with my parents and the dog. Although I am not a big fan of the dog (she’s always trying to play with me and lick me – yuck!), she is very warm at night so sometimes I curl up next to her and purr. I am also becoming a very good lap cat. If you sit down, you better have your lap ready because I’m coming too!

I just wanted to let you know that I am doing great! I may have had a rough start, but I am definitely making up for lost time now. Thanks for saving my life and taking care of me – now I get to enjoy it! See the windows behind me? They keep telling me that the birds are coming soon so I am keeping watch.

Now if I could just find a way to get them...

Love,
Alexa

We love you too, Alexa, and we're so happy for you and your family.

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Marie's Casting Video

This was filmed mid July 2011 when Joa’s Arc was hoping Animal Planet would come out to help Marie and her cats. Thankfully they did!

Go, Nancy! Go, Joyce!

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Alexa's Surgery

Last week, Alexa went to vist Dr John and he determined that her eye had to be removed.

Dr. John called today to say that Alexa's eye removal surgery went well. It seems she had an untreated eye infection at some point which caused her eye to become glaucomatis - it never would have gotten better.

Lost in a mass of other cats and suffering, Alexa would have continued to suffer in the hoarder's house. However, she was pulled and she got into foster care. Now thanks to Joa’s Arc, Alexa's attentive foster mom, Joyce, and the wonderful Dr. John, Alexa is finally on her way to living a pain-free life for the first time in her whole little life!

Her foster mom, Joyce, wrote: "Can't wait to pick her up tomorrow! Can wait to see the bill..."

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Taylor

Here is Zuni (formally Taylor) with his sister Daisey. He's got another furry sibling in his new home too.

Zuni came from the hoarding house, was pretty scared at first ... and look at him now!!

Thank you Finally Home Farm for rescuing Taylor/Zuni. Thank you for helping to socialize him, make him feel safe and for giving him a chance to have such a "happy tail".

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In Joyce's Words

Since she did such a fantastic job last night, I'm going to give you the quick explanation of the house in Joyce's words:

Now that the show has aired, my contract with Animal Planet regarding the show is over, we were not allowed to talk publicly about it until it aired.

Joa’s Arc is run by three people: Jennifer Miles Smith, Jen Wesh and myself. We rescue special need animals.

A local rescuer met Marie's boyfriend at a store buying tons of cat food and struck up a conversation with him. He asked Tina V for help. She went to the house and called me knowing it was such a big rescue.

I went over and was shocked. The two Jens came over and I promised Marie we would save them, not really knowing how to do it, but I swear the cats were begging for help through their eyes. Paula D from AWA/STAF was there too and she in turn got help with spay/neutering the cats. I contacted Nancy W , the local ACO, to inform her of the situation knowing she had to know what was going on and that she would help.

I contacted Animal Planet knowing we needed help. All of us working endlessly taking pics of the cats, posting them as you all saw during the summer and taking them to the clinic for surgery. We had to wait for Animal Planet to decide if they could help.

Before Animal Planet came on scene in July, we had already placed about 60 cats. During the filming of the show, roughly 110 cats were removed. We ran out of rescues so about 18 cats remained in the house after "the big removal".

One of the cats gave birth that night to a litter of kittens. They were pulled immediately and went to Tina. In the meanwhile, we started working on placement for the remaining cats. We removed them all by November. including 11 more kittens. One kitten was paralyzed and died. Another was extremely sick and after two weeks I couldn't save her and she died. So the true total was just under 200.

The show has given Marie the option for counseling forever if she decides she wants it. She has not taken the offer as of now, but I hope she changes her mind.

Marie took 12 cats off the streets initially and, since most were not spay/neutered, they all bred creating this situation. The show should have stressed the importance of spaying because this could all have been avoided.

She is still dealing with municipal charges and the city housing department will be monitoring her home to assure it doesn't happen again. She still lives in the house, AP helped with repairs to the livingroom but it is up to her to complete the repairs upstairs.

Without intervention, repeat rate is 100% so I pray she gets help. It was mentioned in the show that Marie did this back in 1997. All the animals were removed back then and euthanized which was so sad - they were never given the chance. Besides the cats being the victims, her daughter Vicky was a victim. I was so worried about her last night, knowing her secret was going to be exposed. Vicky has been thru a lot and I pray she finds the strength to deal with this.

This was truly a group effort by many rescues and shelters. I am so proud we all came together for the sake of the animals and proved it can be done.

Feel free to look back into our blog. Now that our contract is done, we'll be adding back dated posts which include a lot of pictures and information. This was a huge, big task that took a lot of time, effort, emotion and teamwork!

Thank you to everyone that was involved and thank you for all your support for our group and these cats.

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More Than What It Seems

Lots of comments have been made about how the cats looked healthy, how they looked cared for, that they were lovable, etc.

There were a handful or so of friendly, mostly healthy cats. That's true. Actually, there are often pets like this in just about any hoarder's house. Hoarders don't usually start with dozens and dozens of pets - there is often a small, "original group" which at one point got their own individual, they were loved, socialized and cared for... at one point.

Like in most hoarding situations though, underneath the healthy looking pets were ones who were anything but well or even properly cared for. In this house, aside from the friendly, healthy cats, there were:

- cats with eye injuries
- cats withpainful genetic eye deformities
- several cats with chronic URIs (imagine a raw, runny nose or crusty eyes all the time)
- females constantly lactating because kittens that weren't even theirs were nursing on them
- 2 rooms of "families" of cats closed in there all the time interbreeding with each other with barely a fan to circulated the hot summer air
- cats with injuries going untreated
- bugs by or in the food
- unfixed tomcats marking (peeing on) everything
- a kitten born paraplegic just wriggling in all the filth

Could the cats have been sicker? Yes.

Could they have been starving? Yup.

But this house absolutely was not simply a herd of cats that we felt was 'too many'.

This house also completely drained our rescue. Although many people kindly donated to help out, things like the flea covered, sick kittens we removed at the end of October and Alexa's requiring her eye to be removed, cleaned up out. We have no money for the special needs animals still in our care. Please consider donating so we can keep up the work we do:

You can also send a donation to our PO Box

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Post Show - Cats Still In Need

Did you catch us on TV last night?!

Joa’s Arc was part of the show Confession: Animal Hoarding which aired on Animal Planet last night at 10pm. In the next few days, you'll be able to find out more information on the house, the cats, more of the hard work and team work involved in this big effort on our blog when back dated posts are added to our blog here.

For now though, we wanted to highlight some of the cats still in need. Below is a list of some who are still available for adoption even months after they were removed from the hoarder's house.

All of these cats have adorable faces and all of them are certainly in need. However, before considering the adoption of one of these cats, know that a lot of them come with a bit of "baggage". These cats were almost all born, raised and lived in a home where they were just another cat lost in the mass of so many.

The chronic stress of crowded conditions leads to psychological issues in animals. They sometimes need a bit of extra effort to litterbox train them once in a home, especially after coming from an environment where a clean litterbox was probably hard to find, going to the bathroom on the floor was the norm and carpet doesn't allow a cat to "cover up" their mess. Hoarded animals may also show extreme shyness or aggression when physical contact is attempted. These cats are used to living around other animals though, so these cats will probably be good in a home with another cat or two (or dog, there was a big dog in the house too!)

Still interested in one of these TV stars? Here are a few still looking for a home of their own:

- Tiffany
- Alexa
- Blake Alexander
- Katrina
- Sawyer
- Axella Marie
- Shane
- Ariana
- Mikhail
- Dalton
- Cinnamon
- Dallas
- Chante Marie
- Jeremy

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Words From Joyce

Today, Joyce M of Joa’s Arc wrote:

Dear Friends,

Tonight our episode airs on Animal Planet and I know you are aware of it.

What I want from you is to learn from this episode:

- the animals from hoarding situations do NOT need to be euthanized. They can be saved regardless of how many. Rescues and shelters need to come together to accomplish this. Our episode proves it can be done.
- Hoarding is a psych issue. I believe it is a component of OCD. With help, it can be controlled. Don't point the finger at her, she needed help and it is available to her, let's hope she gets it.
- Although the animals are the victims, there are other victims in these situation ... the family members. This will touch your heart and make you realize that hoarding is harmful to the family and everyone involved.
- Help is available out there if you know someone in this situation. Speak up, don't walk away.
- Spay/neutering is not an option, it is a must!!

We have learned a lot by doing this rescue and it will be very emotional for all of us as it was all the weeks working on it. Personally, I have grown and learned a lot from this, I hope you do to.

Don't miss us tonight at 10pm on Animal Planet's Confessions: Animal Hoarding

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Joa's Arc on TV Tomorrow

Tomorrow night, the Confessions: Animal Hoarding episode featuring Joa’s Arc help will be on Animal Planet.

Here are some still shots from the website to give you an early glimpse. (We'll be posting our own photos and information after the show airs)

Make sure to set your recording devices or set a reminder so you can tune in tomorrow night!

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An Update on The First Family

Deb wrote: To make sure that the kittens were social, I made sure they were played with and handled every day.

The kittens in Deb and Lakota's care grew up quickly and were all named Native American tribal names like their mom. They all were spayed/neutered, micro chipped, vaccinated and adopted in to new homes.

About Lakota though, Deb said, "Because Lakota never received one-on-one human contact growing up in the hoarder's house though, she was not interested in being petted or handled by anyone. As much as I tried to work with her, she barely tolerated me when I cleaned her crate and bedding every day.

What do you do with a mom cat that doesn’t want to have human contact yet isn’t feral? There is not an oasis on some farm for cats like her. I really grappled with that decision and finally came to the only compassionate conclusion that I could live with – to allow her to live out her life, on her terms, in my home.

Again, Deb proves herself to be a wonderful person. This decision of hers is not one made lightly. Deb knows that this will at times be very difficult for both she and Lakota. For example, if Lakota gets sick or needs veterinary care, it’s not going to be easy to handle her.

Deb: "People who are hoarders think they are doing the animals a favor by keeping them, but the animals are usually unsocial, sickly and breeding goes unchecked. We can fix sickly and we can spay & neuter, them but it’s much harder to fix an unfriendly adult. Because of that unsocial behavior, rescues and shelters aren’t able to re-home them successfully without putting a lot of work into these cats.

In the end, the hoarders didn’t do the animals any service by keeping them; in fact, the reality is just the opposite. But for Lakota and her kittens, it will at least be a happy ending.

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Wonderful Update from Debbie R

Friend of Joa’s Arc, Debbie R, wrote to us last night about two of the cats she ended up with from the hoarder's house. Deb wrote:

I just wanted to give you the final chapter regarding "Nelson", one of the last cats to come out of the hoarder house who was estimated to be about 3 years old and "Lakota", the first cat to come out with the eight kittens.

Nelson was not neutered and all four eyelids suffered from entropian (they think he had the painful eyelid issue his whole life). My vet neutered him during an initial examination and another vet in the office did the entropian surgery a few weeks later.

Since then, Nelson has come out of his shell. He lives freely in my (heated) garage among the other somewhat "unadoptable" kitties. He doesn't come to me but I can tell that he is so much happier. His eyes are open almost fully open, more than they ever were able to open. He now tries to play with the other cats and enjoys bouncing around the catnip mouse. I think he has just discovered toys because he acts "kitten-ish". He also head butts the other cats and rolls over playfully. He knows the shaking of the treat jar and comes running when he hears it. He spends his days sleeping near the heater or perched high on one of the five cat trees looking out the window.

Although his "friend" was released into my colony, I don't feel that Nelson is feral enough nor sees well enough to live on his own outside. So I have made the decision that although he doesn't want human contact (thank you very much, hoarder house lady), I will let him live his life out with me and the "unadoptables". I continue to talk to him and coax him to come to me and hope that some day he will trust humans.

"Lakota" is similar to "Nelson" in that she's not feral but doesn't need human contact. She, too, will live her life with the "unadoptables".

I truly am in awe of all that you ladies do on a daily basis and for the effort that you put forth in this hoarding situation. I don't think you got the recognition in this situation that you deserve when others swooped in for the glory. But I know you were willing to deal with that if the animals were safe and for that, I admire you.

Debbie also sent the recent photos included in this post of Nelson and Lakota in her email. Look how wonderful Nelson's eyes look!

I wrote back to Deb and I told her how wonderful she was - wonderful, wonderful, wonderful! I expressed to her that although the lives these cats lead before us breaks my heart, I am happy these cats found their way to someone as caring and thoughtful as Debbie.

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BIG ANNOUNCEMENT!

Starting back in July of 2011, Joa's Arc discovered a cat hoarding situation. Although Joa's Arc mainly rescues special needs shelter animals, our volunteers were some of the first to gain the trust of the home owners. From that day, Joa’s Arc worked endless hours for several months for the sake of the cats - raising funds to get some of the cats fixed, treating several cats with special needs, finding donations of food, taking over toys for the cats, fostering cats and networking to find homes for as many as possible.

Following just a few trips to this house of cats, Joa’s Arc volunteers realized that saving all the cats would take a great deal of team work. After saying the words, "We will save them all. We have to," Joa's Arc's own Joyce Moyer reached out to Confessions: Animal Hoarding. Now, Joa’s Arc can finally announce that these cats were rescued thanks to a lot of hard work, kind people, teamwork and Animal Planet's Confessions: Animal Hoarding.

Partner organizations Almost Home Animal Shelter, St. Hubert’s Animal Welfare Center, the Humane Society of Atlantic County and the AWA assisted in the rescue of 165 cats. Finally Home Farm and the AWA also assisted in fostering and placing several feral cats from this house as well. It was an amazing, heart wrenching experience, but worth it because, in the end, these cats were saved!

The story will air on Animal Planet's new hit series Confessions: Animal Hoarding. The series explores stories of people who own more pets then they can care for. The problem of animal hoarding is little understood, but far more common than most people realize. There are over 3000 reported cases a year, and at least ten times that number that go unreported. The series brings families together to voluntarily find humane solutions that work for both pets and people. If you know someone who might be an animal hoarder, you can learn more at www.animalhoardingproject.com

Big Announcement part:The story Joa's Arc participated in is scheduled to air Friday, January 27, 2012 @10pm EST and PST.

We are asking you to please promote this show to highlight the plight of animals in situations like this. At the end of the day, these animals need help and it is up to us to find it for them.

More updates on the house coming soon following the show's air date. Tweet This

Happy New Year!!

A new year - a new opportunity to help more shelters, help more animals, save more special lives and make new friends who share the same goals!

As we reflect back on 2011, we see so many accomplishments and happy tails...

Besides caring for our special needs animals like Wil, Faulk, Mia and Gabe (who are still available for adoption), Joa's Arc was actively involved in a huge cat hoarding situation for several months! Joyce M, Jen S and Jen W were some of the very first people to become involved with this house at the very beginning and it has to this day remained a stressful, demanding situation. Because we were so wrapped up with this hoarding house for so long, we were very slow on adoptions this year and, of course, each ended up with some of these cats in our homes at one point. Stay tuned for info about this whole ordeal soon!

Gabriel got surgery, healed up and was finally available for adoption this year! Joa's Arc rescued Gabriel, a 4 year old hound boy, who was found on the side of a road after being hit by a car in the south. Although we mainly rescue shelter animals in South Jersey, Gabe had not one, but two incidents making him a more than usual desperate case. Although another rescue down south initially took him in, had his leg casted and placed him in foster care... Gabe chewed off his cast in anxiety after another dog decided he didn’t like Gabriel and nearly tore off Gabe's entire ear! After surgery to staple his ear back in place, this rescue reached out for help and Joa’s Arc agreed to take Gabriel.

Gabe came to New Jersey and had surgery on his broken leg, which was some sort of rare break that the seasoned orthopedic vet we took Gabe to said he had never personally seen before. After months of rehab and vet care, Gabe is good as new now though! He is a goofy, loving, sweet hound who loves everyone including dogs and cats. We have one final step to accomplish in his recovery and that is to find him a loving forever home, preferably with another dog he can play with.

Joa's Arc also recently pulled two kittens, Guppy and Gizmo, from a local shelter. Gizmo has some serious eye deformities and and ulcer in her one eye. Guppy has a deformed back leg and tail, though it's hard to tell because this vocal, little munchkin gets around really well! Thanks to networking and some kind people stepping up to help us help them, both kittens are now safe in foster care.

Right before the holidays, two very special cats found themselves happy in homes - Maizey the CH kitty and Inferno, a blind, older cat who was in a local shelter.

We can't forget about Savior and Sal either! A very nice person found Savior, an all white adult male cat, and Sal, an all black male kitten, all by themselves in an empty apartment. This odd pair were both suffering from neglect - skinny and sick. Joa's Arc was able to help get the two cleaned up, back to health and both neutered. Through this all, we found that Savior and Sal had an incredible bond together... and we completed their story with us the only way we knew how - by finding them a loving home together!

Talk about a transformation!!

Joa's Arc has helped many special needs (and normal) animals this year, with some still waiting to be adopted. It is thanks to your help and support that we've been able to accomplish so much! With your continued support, we look forward to whatever 2012 holds for us.

Here's to a happy, healthy, life-saving 2012! Tweet This

An Update

After several weeks of eye meds with no improvement, it was determined that one of the hoarder house cats had entropian (the eye lids turn in and eye lashes constantly irritate the eye ball).

This is a condition that must be corrected with surgery and it is a congenital condition, meaning this poor guy has been suffering his entire life, but among all the other cats in the house, his condition was either never noticed or just neglected. Poor man!

He got surgery to correct this condition and is on eye meds for an severely uclerated eye ball.

His caretaker Deb reports: Definition of a challenge = putting eye drops in a ferals eye!

Hahahaha! We wish you the best of luck, Deb! If only there was a way we could explain to them that we're trying to help... Tweet This

Kittens!

You wouldn't think kittens would be hard to place, but sometimes, in mass, they can be... especially these kittens, but we'll get to that.

In summer, kittens are everywhere - you may find them in your backyard, outside your office, crying on your front porch, at a friend of a friend's and especially at shelters and rescues. These kittens were found in a house though, a house with a lot of cats...

This house had so many cats in it, that some of our first steps to help them was by attempting to fix as many cats as possible while also moving kittens out in order to begin socializing them. A super, sweet, local teacher, Kelly T, was nice enough to take on as many kittens as she possibly could. She ended up taking home 10 very smelly, nervous kittens to foster and, in her care, they have grown into beautiful sweethearts over the last few weeks!

These kittens had a special start and so we'd really like to see them have their own families to show them the love, care and one-on-one attention that they truly deserve. They are special for other reasons too. All of these kittens should be adopted as soon as possible for their medication to actually work. They've been repeatedly treated for some "tummy troubles" (diarrhea), but because there are so many, even under Kelly's watchful eye and in her clean home, they are passing this back and forth to one another. Homes of their own and medication should clear up any left over stomach issues quite quickly.

One of the kittens, Hope, also happened to suffer some unknown injury when she was younger. X-rays show that she had a fracture at one point, which went untreated. One of two bones in her little leg is growing faster than the other now because of this old injury and it is slightly rotated. Kelly's been keeping a close watch on Hope and right now, the plan is x-rays in two more months to see how she's grown into the old injury.

All of the kittens are already spayed/neutered, vaccinated and finishing up some medication now (which they could probably go to their new homes with). They're special, that's for sure, but each and every one deserves a good, new home. If you are interested in any of them, please email Kelly

Here they are, one by one, for your own viewing delight...

Abby, 3.5 month old little lady

Blake, 4 months old - look at the eyes on this boy!!

Callie is a girl and just 3.5 months old

Duke, the 4.5 month old, sad eyed boy

Hope, 4 month old injured leg girl

Holly, 4.5 month old cuddlebug girl

Jasper, 3.5 month old boy

Tango, 4 month old male

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More on The First Family

Meet Lakota and "her" 8 kittens!

Their foster mom, Deb, writes, "Lakota and these eight tiny babies came to me through Joa’s Arc. We don’t believe that all eight are biologically Lakota’s kittens, but they all looked the same and needed to get out of their current situation, so it didn’t really matter.

I think Joyce M originally asked me to take a mom and “4 or 5 babies” but when we met, she said she “thought” there might be 7 babies. When I got them home and began counting as they came out of the carrier, there were EIGHT sweet, little orange or buff and white kittens.

I now know to never trust Joyce M’s math again! {Note: LOL. I'm pretty sure the removal of this family was planned, so Lakota and babies were already in a carrier when Joyce arrived at the hoarder's to pick them up. Not to mention, let's be honest, a big pile of orange/buff and white kittens could be hard to count}

The kittens all had crusty eyes and both they and Lakota smelled terrible ... just like I imagined the house would smell like. After some antibiotics and eye ointment, their URI {upper respiratory infection} began to clear up and soon they were looking and smelling like well-cared for kittens are supposed to!

Deb is such a wonderful, wonderful lady and so it's no wonder the kittens are thriving in her care!

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E-Mail

Direct quote from an email I sent regarding the hoarding house and some of the photos:

I was nice, but honest when I responded, "That house is offensive ... And we're not going to get help if we just post photos of sweet cats in clean beds." What I'm putting {out there} is just to help the cats. Sugar-coating things by cropping out all the crap or not mentioning that these cats will die if placement isn't found (which is TRUE) is not going to get them anywhere.

I am still very upset. I understand the {family} being upset, but I'm not the one who created that situation. She {the hoarder} did! My tolerance for dealing with them is slipping away more and more when I see the sad eyes of those cats...

This frustration was a constant - of being nice and being walked all over. Not to mention the harassment we got while seeking help. After posting some of the pictures, a lot of help came forward. Mixed in with that though were some people who were not so nice. We got asked questions like, "What a sick, sick person. Why are you being so nice to her?", "Don't you want to punch her in the face?", "This person is a monster! Why are you dealing with her?" We erased these comments or just didn't respond to them. It definitely got to us though...

On that note - the photos I went through from today... Ugh!

We went there looking for kittens after we heard a few had been born. While on the ground, looking under the bed and flashing the camera (to try to catch a photo of the cats I couldn't see), I heard a clicking noise - a lot of clicking noise and it was coming from right by my ear. I turn my head and there were these black bugs on the ground where I just had my head near and by the food dishes. Here's one of the dishes, the one my head was by:

See the little black dots by the food dish? Yea, those were some of the bugs. There were more in the corner and by the other food dish in the room too. Oh, and this was one of the first visits that we went and the cats upstairs actually had some food and water in their dishes before we got there, so a great big THANK YOU to everyone who has been donating food. It's really appreciated and being put to good use.

It was super hot today, but the windows are rarely open or a fan on because of the smell. The neighbors complain, which is understandable. It is incredible! The cats were really suffering though, some of them were even open mouth breathing and we called animal control to tell them to remind {the hoarder} she must keep the fans on no matter what.

We're being nice for the cats, we're sharing what we have to for the cats ... and the help coming forward is so appreciated. We cannot say that enough. It's taking time, but we are helping these cats.

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