Hoardering Fugitives

I titled this post about "Hoardering Fugitives" as it is what I do with my stuff. It comes into my sewing room, is washed then put where it needs to go or is used accordingly and quickly. Unless I am working on a project then it piles up fast. But then gets put away and organized after a project is done. 

But this week has been a Hoarder type of week for someone that I know.  Stacks of empty food boxes, recycling piled up, dirty dishes stacked up, cans mountains piled in a corner and the owner does not see it. We recently had to put a friend into the nursing home. He was no longer bathing and no longer paying his bills. He was getting lost while driving and was neglecting himself. He has no relatives nor family so we dove into his world. I dug around until I could find his bills and finances with the help of another friend. Bills and finances were sent to an assigned POA. The clean up was undertaken by a volunteer family. We are grateful no pets were owned. It takes a village to organize and clean up just one hoarder. Since we have so many good volunteers he will be set up for the rest of his life in the nursing home. Finances are set up to pay for his care, his stuff has been paired down to the basics and his remaining assets will be sold to pay for his care. The hardest part is disconnecting cable and phone. Oh how the cable and phone companies want all kinds of documents to verify if a person can't pay. A doctors note, really? We live 3 hours away from any city doctors office. I would just let it go unpaid except that it was set up for automatic deductions from his bank account. I am here to tell you the cable company and the phone company will give you the run around about disconnecting for any reason. They do not care about the person/reason just that the account stay open. Luckily since I am not the POA I passed the bills to them.

When someone gets put into the nursing home, their pets are not allowed. Those pets become collateral damage and part of the equation when the owner is out of the picture. If family/neighbor won't take them, the shelter is full guess what happens to that animal?   Some let the animal "go free". Which is why we have so many stray cats and dogs even out here in the Ozarks. Farm and livestock even gets "set free" since the city family do not know what else to do. This is how we got 23 chickens on our farm over the year. "Set free" poultry found our farm even though we don't know who owned these to begin with. We are surrounded by only cattle farms. Stay cows, dogs, chickens, cats and the like always seem to find our farm. We sold off the wandering chickens. But in the city and suburbs what happens to their pets? It is not a pretty thing. Have a plan for anyone you know who has pets and is ill or getting that way. Share that plan with family, friends and neighbors. 

Hoarding is a mental disorder and it can't be cured. Their brain is just not working the way you see & smell in their home. And you can't fix them by cleaning up their place. This causes them stress and anger. Best to have a plan in place if they ever get sick or have to move.