The Voice has a sad story about "Steven," a 62-year-old former stock broker turned cat hoarder. His wife is in a nursing home, and he began taking in cats seven years ago, to look after and keep him company.
Now Steven has 35 cats, as the ASPCA discovered when it dispatched its chief "hoarding investigator," Allison Cordona, to his Washington Heights apartment in response to complaints about the smell.
In 2005 the ASPCA, as part of the Mayor's Alliance for NYC's Animals, helped the city get thousands of dollars in grant money to launch an anti-hoarding program. Administered by the city's Department of Health, the pilot project pairs Cardona with a social worker who hooks up troubled hoarders with medical care, food stamps, and other services. Cardona, meanwhile, deals with the animals - first, spaying and neutering them; and then, trying to place them in adopted homes.
Before Cordona arrived, Steven said no one else had entered his apartment in five years. The cats had taken over, reducing furnishings to shreds, filling the place with hair and dust. I am eating as I write this, so I won't mention the litter boxes.
Unless animals are being abused, the ASPCA can not seize them - though at least one of Steven's cats looked malnourished, according to the story. Cordona eventually persuaded Steven to relinquish 32 cats, who will be spayed and neutered as necessary, then offered for adoption. Steven decided to keep three for himself.
"They're smarter than a lot of people," he said, "and they never, ever disappoint."
Amen to that.
Photo: Buster, Pig, Isadore and Beans. (Not pictured: Mookie and Zoe.)
