Are We All Hoarders???????

[BarefootMom]

I don't even consider it- I consider myself a farmer.

I have 30 chickens, 1 cat, 8 cows, 23 calves in all (we had bottle babies), and we just sold 2 dogs hoping to get a puppy soon. But we live on 300 acres (my mom and dad's land but we use it).

 

[chicken_china_mom]

Quote:
Can you try to locate phone numbers for rescues or animal control? PLEASE try to call around - someone should be willing to help you out. Tell them you have no transportation, and you are over whelmed with animals you can not care for - and that you can not pay a pick up fee (the shelter here charges a pick up fee for animals from a home - if surrendered) - and see if someone can help you out? Its no life for you, your children, or those animals to keep them - as you seem to well know.


Also in the future if your kids find kittens - take them immediately to the shelter instead of bringing them home - I know its hard but you have to think of it as whats best for your family and the kitten - if you can't care for it and socialize it appropriately and your overwhelmed with worrying about the animals - then its no place for another animal to come into.

Good luck and take care.

Where I live there is no services like that. I'm not in a town, I'm out in the country. We called "animal control" when my neighbor's clearly abused dog showed up in my yard a few weeks back trying to get at my chickens. Wanna know how fast they came? NOT AT ALL. Neighbors ended up sneaking into my yard in the middle of the night and stealing the dog back. I had him in a pen cause I was not bringing an outdoor dog inside my house, not with cats!!! Turns out this county's version of animal control is a single woman who works part time and hardly ever answers the phone. I didn't even get her when I called, I got an answering machine. They don't pick up pets. It's expected that if animals show up in your yard you either keep it (which is why I have a neighbor with 37+ dogs), or you take it to a shelter out of this county yourself. I don't have family down here, and my neighbors, well, we have issues with A LOT of them. We're "outsiders" because we moved down here from the Chicago area. We made the mistake of moving into an area where everyone is related to everyone, and I kid you not, EVERYONE in this town is somehow related to someone else! Except us. I have neighbors that absolutely WILL NOT speak to us because we're from out of town. Ridiculous, but after 2 years, I only speak to 2 neighbors. One would NOT allow me to put animals in her car, no matter what, and the other, half the time we're too "sinful" to interact with, and they wouldn't allow it either. I've tried Craigslist, Freecycle, etc. But no one is ever seriously interested. I had success giving away strays that we found when we lived up in the Chicago area, but down here? When you can walk outside and pick yourself up a new cat any day of the week? No luck. It's frustrating. I told my kids absolutely NO kittens are to be brought inside this year. I had to stress that over and over and over, and it's July and so far, they haven't come in with a single kitten. Last spring and summer I was ticked. The kittens were all extremely sick, most on the verge of death, all because my next door neighbor IS a hoarder, and among all the things she hoards, she also hoards cats. So these sick kittens kept wandering into my yard (no fences between properties out here), and my kids want to rescue everything. Most of the kittens were rescued while I was at work (had a car then), but once my mother laid eyes on them, she had to fix them. Once she fixed them, she was in love with them. If I tried to suggest that we rehome some, she would get combative and threaten to move, or take something away from me, etc. But no one in our family would take her in with all these cats. I had to wait for her to begin to feel overwhelmed, and for her to finally come to the realization on her own that we need to downsize, and that there is no way around it. Of course I kept subtly suggesting it, and she has finally began to come around. We have discussed it and she is ready and willing to give away many of them. Course I can't get her to get rid of all of them (I think it would kill her), but she's willing to get them down to a more comfortable number, and I'm happy about that. Now, we just need to get a way to get them the shelter, which is an hour away in Lafayette. No easy task, otherwise they would have been gone. Like I said before, I couldn't take them away from my mother until she came to the realization that they needed to go. I'm hoping that I can sweet talk my friend into making the drive with me when he comes down around Labor Day. Unfortunately when he comes down, it's usually over a weekend, and it's usually a holiday weekend, so I'm hoping he'll come down early enough on Saturday (unless he decides to come down on Sunday. He could very well do that) that we can take a bunch of them to the shelter. And he may very well say no. He's done it before when we've asked other favors. So we'll have to see. If he does, and he says ok, then they are outta here! Course if I can get rid of them before that, I'll jump at the chance! I hate feeling like I'm to the point that I hate cats. I don't truly hate them, but I hate having them ALL OVER. I technically own 2 cats. Just two. One is 15 and has a kitty version of Altzheimers, and my 9 yr old is fine, she just has some food and flea allergies, but she has been healthy as a horse her entire life. But they WILL go, as soon as we find a way for them to go.

 

[chica57]

chicken china mom----So sorry you moved from Chicago to experience neighbors like that - I to moved from a Chicago suburb to Brown County IN and a very small town but everyone here is so friendly and very welcoming. Since your going to Chickenstock maybe you could try to talk to people there-you never know who knows somebody or something that will help you out-its worth a shot-Good Luck--I love reading everyones feedback-so many good points and the mansion stuff--YUUUKKKK!!!!! I know on just the regular hoarders show I've felt so bad about the guys they hire to clear out the houses-its dangerous for your health and certainly any animals involved it does make you rethink your own situation and keep you in check-I've always been a neet freak anyway and moved here so I could have the animals I've always wanted and know could manage properly.

 

[EweSheep]

Hoarders are bad and I too watched that show last night. It was pitiful that they think they are saving the animals in spite of their spouse or friend's or family relationships. Even divorce is commonplace in hoarders.

I had taken care of a friend's farm a couple of times and each time, there were MORE animals, like the cats inside the house, they were literally in CONTROL of the house, pooping and peeing and puking anywhere they went. Glad she had a mother in law apartment that I stayed there over the Thanksgiving vacation. I loved my job but this time the last time I took care of it, ti was the last straw, the litterboxes were overflowing, cats walking on countertops and eating into the food, dirty microwave and get this one, the goats, chickens and a horse knee deep in manure, mud and water. UGH! No more!

I think it was about ten years later, most of the animals she had all has passed on or sold. She was a good hearted woman but sadly misguided about animals and their welfare. Her husband of forty some years was so sick of her taking in animals and he threatened her with divorce. I hope they got the problem resolved, since it has been 20 years.

For those of us who have too many chickens (is 9 chickens with 13 chicks too much?), we will know the time we would need to downsize. The roosters can be sold, or eaten or if you know of a hawk nearby, feed that to the hawk. Many zoo can take on extra chickens and they have used them to feed them to the gators and cheetas and lions.

 

[chickensducks&agoose]

My birds free-range during the days, and are locked up tight at night... we increase numbers in the spring and summer, because we always lose a bunch to foxes... I don't really count the turkeys or meaties, since they're not going to be around for much longer, and I do provide good care (clean housing, good food, clean water, pond, etc) for the ones we keep overwinter... every spring we have much less than when we started... but it's either lose some naturally, or keep them locked up all the time, which I don't think is nice for the animal...