Looking for help in cleaning up a cat hoarders house

[Cleo]

I suspected this may be someone close to you and an SO's mother is close enough. Did you guys have no idea of the severity of this? I just re-read the initial posts and see you're out of state from where she is. No other family members were around to step up?

I'm not pointing fingers or lecturing. Certainly, what's done is done and all you guys can do from here is go forward. Where is Watkins Glen? Upstate NY? I'm in lower NY towards the city and don't know of anyone in the area but again, try with a hazmat company or contractors who deal in the like.

In thinking about it, I would nix the idea of hiring a day laboror. My idiot BIL used a friend of his who's a self proclaimed jack of all trades and the fool used nails bigger and thicker than what they hung Jesus on the cross with to put up molding. Sorry for the religious comment but he ended up puncturing a water line which caused a slow leak over last summer and the wall had to be gutted. The "new kitchen" ended up looking worse than the old one. I know we all have our horror stories and this isn't to say that the professionals don't screw up either.

And everyone laughs at me because I watch the home shows and have my own fully stocked tool box! HA

Again, good luck.

[Traci]

I don't mean to point fingers either, and since she is your MIL in a way, yes I understand the sensitivity. However, if she had that many cats, and no matter who the person is, if the Humane Society went in and recommended taking the cats out, chances are, their health was at risk, THAT is the deciding factor, whether she was charged or not. This is why there should be stricter laws regarding hoarders.

If the MIL owns her home, then she is ultimately responsible in choosing who comes in to clean, etc. If she's elderly, lives alone and on a fixed income, she should NOT utilize day labor unless the laborers are also accompanied by a supervisor who is licensed and bonded (insurance) by the actual employer of the day laborers. This is important!

Mamabear mentioned merrymaids, which might be one resource, but this sounds like a job out of their normal duties and probably shouldn't be there unless to do surface cleaning, well after the hardest work is done, however, one could call them for tips on other cleaning services to call. Look in the phone book and look under professional cleaning services, or industrial cleaning services, etc.

A home inspector could be consulted, to survey and approximate damages, and approximate the costs of cleaning, renovation, repairs, etc. A home inspector should have lots of resources available to advise your MIL to contact for these jobs.

[Tambrey]

Is there a servicemaster that you can call?
http://servicemaster.com

I know when we had our entire town's RAW sewage erupt in our basement...TWICE....a long time ago...the city hired them to clean and sanitize our basement and anything salvagable in it

But yeah....carpeting/tiles/subfloors and drywall will probably need to be torn down...possibly insulation as well...and redone....

Urineoff also makes a good cleaning product...they ship by the gallon...

[needhelpinny]

Hi all, thank you for the suggestions. This is the SO.

I am her only family, everyone else has passed and I'm an only son. Yes, I have been aware of this situation for a number of years, and I have been warning her about it for years. But I also knew that it would take something like this to wake her up from her self imposed solitude and snap her into reality.

The health of the cats are not seriously at risk. They have been looked at, and she take good care of them physically. The animal control officer has not charged her, but is working with her to reclaim her life. The main issue is that keeping the house clean with that many cats, a number that "grew" on her over the years, just was to much for her to handle. All of the cats are still in the house, primarily because she does not want them to be killed. South Central NY has had several large (300+) cat houses in the last few months and the animal rescue system is overloaded. So it is taking time to get the cats out and placed.

The main thing is getting this done before the snow becomes a problem. I'm going to follow up on some of your suggestions and if anyone else has a suggestion, I would love to hear it!

Thanks!

[kehorner]

You might even look into seeing if you can find a crime scene cleanup company. They generally specialize in cleaning up crime scenes, but that means that they deal with biohazards, extreme messes, and really bad smells. Of course, this is a new field, so you may or may not find something like this in your area.

[Traci]

If you don't mind, what exactly is the condition of the home? We can only make assumptions at this point. You mentioned mom's difficulty in cleaning with a large number of cats for a number of years, but to what extent has it become? I would assume that since the phone company personel refused entry, and it came to the HS investigating and recommending removal of the cats, that it is indeed, a health risk to both the cats and your mom?

Does your mom have home insurance? If she's elderly and retired, does she have enough income to cover renovation?

Best thing for the cats would be to try to contact rescue organizations to help in placing them in qualifed homes. Of course you do NOT want them in a kill-shelter. If there has been media awareness of this, it's entirely possible the community might chip in and help adopt the cats, as well as offer donations or help with the home's renovation, just an idea. One could also contact rescue organizations in another county etc for help in placing the cats into loving homes. Ideally, it would be beneficial to try to place cats together however possible, since this is a very stressful situation for them, and it would be better for them to be placed in two's or three's together, etc.

[needhelpinny]

Service Master was the perfect solution. As soon as the cats are out of the house, I will go up to NY and meet them and they will asses the condition of the house.

We are working with all of the animal rescue organizations in the region, and they are all full, but they are helping as they can.

Thank you all for your suggestions and help. If you ever come across this situation in the future, point the person to Service Master. I'll check in from time to time to let you all know how this is progressing.