In Omaha earlier this week, the Nebraska Humane Society raided the home of a 68-year-old woman because of a tip from a Council Bluffs, Iowa (just across the Missouri river, still part of the larger metro Omaha area) pet store. The woman had been caught trying to shoplift cat food. The NHS found over 100 cats in the woman's home.
I am not going to reveal her name, even though it's been in all the news stories, because she doesn't need more publicity directed at her personally. She has sought out the media (print and TV) and taken an active role in claiming she's "not one of those [weird] old ladies" who hoards cats. She merely helps and protects cats.
The NHS would disagree. While NHS workers admitted that the woman's home was not as bad as some they've had to raid [they didn't need to don HazMat gear--Ed.], even three days after they removed all the cats, cleaned what they could, and left the house's windows open, the house still smells of urine and illness.
The NHS also has had to euthanize over 60 of the cats already. NHS workers also say they found several dead kittens under the woman's bed and some dead cats buried in her back yard.
The woman disputes all these things. She says the only reason her house wasn't as clean as normal the day of the raid is that her normal 4-5 hour routine of cleaning all the litter boxes was not completed because she had to leave for a medical appointment. She says there was only 1 dead kitten under her bed, and no cats buried in the yard.
It's perfectly obvious that she is, in fact, one of those "old ladies" who hoards cats. Delusion about the good she's is doing is the hallmark symptom of an animal hoarder. My heart aches for her, because she is trying to do a good thing--but she doesn't know when or how to stop or set limits, and has allowed her need for being a care-giver to overwhelm her sense about how much care she can responsibly give.
The reason this matters? Well, Socrates said an unexamined life was not worth living, and the lady's story made me wonder how much and in what areas we all delude ourselves, and what harm we are doing as a result, even when [especially when--Ed.] we think we are doing good.
I am mulling over my answers about myself. I hope you will do the same for yourselves. Taking time to reflect--and then act on what we discover--gives us all the opportunity to improve ourselves and make our world a better place.
If nothing else, it should provoke us to donate to our local Humane Societies.
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