A friend at work had some really useless neighbors. The sort that regularly have their kids picked up or brought home by the police, never leave their house but have short-term visitors stopping by at all hours, let all sorts of trash pile up around the house - you know the sort. Not surprisingly, the house was foreclosed on and they left, but no before trashing the insides and leaving behind two young cats with no food or water. Unfortunately, the bank locked up the house before anyone knew about the cats.
My friend found out about the cats when a local kid told her that he has seen cats in the basement. Friend called the local shelters, the police, and the local foreclosure company to open the house so she could rescue the cats. She called me and I suggested we accidentally break a basement window, set out some food, and snag the cats. She said she would call me, but luckily the foreclosure company send some workers over to start clearing out the house. They let her in to look for the cats.
The house is beyond trashed. Obviously these people had kept the cats in the basement for most of their lives without bothering to put down cat boxes, clean out shit, or anything else. She described it as “ankle-deep in cat poop”, because she is politer than I am. Eventually she found them, hiding behind the insulation panels, absolutely terrified. The got them out, got them cleaned up, and took them to her house day before yesterday where they have been making up for lost meals.
After they got some food, clean water, and a good night’s sleep, they were different cats - sweet and shy, but soaking up the attention and eventually crawling into foster laps. They even let her trim their claws. They are very thin, but look to be in good health otherwise, with clean teeth, good fur (now that it isn’t covered in crap), and clear eyes. She thinks they are about a year old, both neutered males, not declawed. Maybe the nightmare folks didn’t actually have them for that long. She guesses they are littermates as they seem very bonded and, as you can see in the pictures, look almost identical:
Obligatory pics of Thing One and Thing Two:
So, now the next step is adoption. None of the shelters will take them - they are full already, thanks to the mortgage crisis. If anyone in the Des Moines area needs two boys (they probably need to go together after all this) let me know. She can keep them for a while but not forever - like me, she already has more animals than she knows what to do with.
