The year is December 2010

It was a small house in the traditional neighborhood of the East Zone of São Paulo, a property consisting of a bedroom, living room, kitchen and a simple bathroom.

In the backyard there were already hundreds of cats and several pots with food for these animals.

The high sun made those food and feline feces emanate an unbearable odor.

Because it would stay there for a long time without someone replacing it or cleaning it up.

The difficulty of letting go of material goods in excess and already worn out was visible when opening the kitchen door, which was the only access to the interior of the property.

And the kittens what to do? Since there were hundreds inside the property sitting on an old sofa and a wooden table, you could see them going up and down from there.

The same table was covered with a rag tablecloth and seemed to hide a mountain. When we pulled the towel, we discovered that there was enough food to feed thousands of litters.

We started the work by requesting help from the Capital Zoonoses Center, they intervened the next day to give a destination to the cats that had already been abandoned there for days. They had a lot of trouble taking the large number of animals.

In the sequence we had to collect that huge amount of feed both in bulk and canned.

In the hasty calculations there were 580 small cans of feed and another 300 kilos of feed that we packed in 100 liter bags.

But the worst was yet to come, we had to apply insecticide to be able to start cleaning, fleas and cockroaches disputed the environment along with the animals.

When the poison was applied inside the drains, walls and floors, we had to leave the property and block the cracks in the doors and windows so that the insects did not go to the outside of the house and harm the neighbors.

Once that was done, it was time to collect the dirt and the surprise was that when we gathered all those insects we filled another 100 liter bag with cockroaches only.

the dorm was totally dark and after removing the old wardrobe what we thought was a dark spot on the wall was actually thousands of cockroaches huddled together as if one were glued to the other. They came to the ground as if they were part of the plaster and in an unexpected pop they spread over the ground, causing us to have to apply the insecticide again.

It was 02 days of work, packing clothes, removing old furniture and a lot of dirt.

The biggest mess was cat feces and spoiled food and even some dead mice left by the cats, and lots of cockroaches.

After our departure, we left the property completely, sanitized and disinfected, but it would need a good renovation, as the salubrity had damaged the structure.

The lady who lived in the environment acquired toxoplasmosis and as there were also heart problems, he was under medical care.

Some time later we learned that luckily she recovered and the family left her under the care of a private nurse and psychological assistance. She had a passion for cats and this exaggerated passion made her lose control of the situation and live in an environment totally without adequate sanitary conditions.

Things started like this: for two, three pets. After twelve months, there were a hundred.

Animal hoarding is a disease that tends to be ignored, but it can do a lot of damage.