Cat Ladies - Canadian documentary from 2009

[Randi]

I just watched this documentary called "Crazy cat ladies" filmed in Toronto, I believe. A few of them I wouldn't call hoarders, but living with more than fifty cats is a bit much. I feel that some of these cats would be better off left outside, provided they are fed, get vet attention and have little houses to sleep in.

Original title: Cat Ladies

Canadian documentary from 2009.

Portrait of four so-called cat ladies. Diane, Margot, Sigi and Jenny are all singles and live with from three to several hundred cats. Margot with her ​​three cats and Jenny with her 16 does not live up to the image of the elderly lady who chug around in a filthy house with cats everywhere, while Diane and Sigi are both older women and have hundreds of cats who are swarming everywhere the furniture, the tables and in cupboards and drawers. Common to the four women is a lifetime feeling of rejection, loss and loneliness. Only in the company of cats, they experience the recognition and love that they think the environment has denied them.

[krazyaboutkatz]

I think that I may have seen this a while back. Yes, I don't think that having a few cats would be considered being a hoarder. What ever the number of cats someone has doesn't matter as long as they're all well cared for. When the house smells like urine because the cats are using the floor as a litter box, when fleas are every where and when the cats are malnurished and sick, this is when it's a huge problem and something needs to be done.

[Lizzie]

I borrowed the DVD from the library where I work last year.

The woman with three cats wasn't a "cat lady" to my mind, except that she liked cat everything.

The woman with 16 was very organized and her home was clean and welcoming. I didn't get the impression the 16 cats woman was that lonely;she mentioned having boyfriends, although she also said the fact she had 16 cats could be off-putting to guys.

I felt for the woman with about 120+ cats. She'd had a well-paid career and knew she was in trouble although couldn't stop rescuing. She does what I don't do any more, she keeps seeing the need. I've stopped looking because it's so very, very easy to fall into the trap of being the one person in your area who does take care of the many, many strays and cats in need. Her home has become a real mess and I couldn't imagine making a meal in her kitchen. I think she was so exhausted, and she looked on the verge of physical collapse, she didn't see what had happened to her home. I was relieved to hear she had started working with a rescue group so she wouldn't take in so many herself.

Now, the last woman, who had hundreds of cats in dirty cages, she was a hoarder and no mistake. She considered herself an angel of mercy and didn't see any problem with the way she kept the cats, even while the camera focused on cats with wounds and crusted shut eyes. She's the type of person who won't be cured and will keep moving and hoarding.

[Randi]

Lizzie, that was a very good description and I agree with you. The young woman with 16 cats seemed to live a normal life and had a nice clean house/flat. She looked pretty good, too, so the boyfriends who wouldn't put up with her cats have missed out there - she made the right choice!

The woman with the German accent, who used to have a good well payed job, realized she was over the limit, but obviously found it very difficult not to go and rescue more. I believe she had had come to the point where she could say, enough is enough.

That last woman really needed help, and the cats, too.