Hoarders

GAHHHH!!!!!!

http://www.grantland.com/blog/hollywood-prospectus/post/_/id/62959/freak-show-tell-no-seriously-actual-worst-house-in-hoarders-history

Hoarders (A&E)
Who Is This Now? Terry.

Why Are We Watching Her? She has hoarded some 50 cats in her home, who have coated every surface with feces; her son Dave has threatened to turn her in to the authorities if she doesn't make it livable.

How Did She Get Here? Terry's father died in front of her when she was too young to understand what was happening. Since then, she says, she's been so afraid of death that she's had a compulsion to keep things alive.

What's the Grossest Thing We See? If you have been reading this column since its inception, you know I have seen some truly awful things. I never thought anything Hoarders could throw at me would ever top Shanna, who described eating some of her expired, feces-tainted food as a "blaze of glory." But Terry is really not well.

FINAL WARNING: The following is so horrible that you may want to stop reading now. I mean it.

OK: In addition to the live cats that have overrun and contaminated her house — one of whom, according to Dave, reacted to all the "ammonia in the air" (from the cats' waste) in a unique way: "Its eyeballs popped out" — Terry has accumulated "dozens upon dozens" of dead cats in her freezer. But it's not just dead cats: Terry has also collected other dead animals: a dozen rats in a Ziploc bag, a loose rabbit, a cardinal wrapped in tinfoil. When extreme cleaning specialist Matt Paxton and therapist Dr. Robin Zasio encourage Terry to confront the evidence of her disordered behavior and clean some of the animal corpses out of the freezer, it becomes clear that the freezer is not as cold as it should be: In the tray at the bottom of the freezer, there is a pool of liquid as dark as coffee, which Paxton identifies as "dead cat juice … dead liquid cats."

What Have We Learned? In this country, you can be allowed to live on your own and look after yourself, even if you were once responsible for the generation of "dead cat juice."

 

I was drinking a cup of coffee when I read this. Despite having no cats, dead or alive, in my house I stopped and stared into my cup slightly revolted by the brown liquid I saw there.

 

I don't even remember starting this thread.

I stopped watching this show after about a year. The stories were all too depressingly familiar. It was frustrating to watch people who had no ability to help themselves.

Watching people with mental illnesses is not fun.

 

Date Registered: November 14, 2002, 11:40:04 AM

 

I watched this episode on DVR and I was horrified by it since I'm so horrified by cruelty to animals.

Strange as it may sound, I wasn't as angry with her as I was with other animal hoarders I've seen on the show. They've acted like that haven't done anything wrong, but this woman seemed truly remorseful -- albeit incredibly fucked up.

I have no doubt that she has at least three cats again already.