‘Cat Hoarder’ in Sengkang Lives with 32 Cats In an HDB Flat Full Of Pee & Poop Stains

Let’s be honest. All of us are hoarders in one way or another.

There are just some things that you know you can’t ever bear to throw away, so you decide to keep them instead, and name it a “collection”.

Don’t lie to yourself. You’re a hoarder.

But that’s really okay, because all of us are hoarders to some extent and there is nothing wrong with that at all.

Unless you’re a hoarder of cats, and you live in a house that reeks of their pee and poop. Then it’s time to get help.

Woman Discovered Living with 32 Cats in an HDB Flat

You know the expression where people say they’re going to be single forever and end up living with 25 cats?

I never expected to hear of that ever happening in real life.

But recently, a “cat hoarder” who lived with a total of 32 cats was discovered in an HDB flat in Sengkang.

An animal rescuer, Watsin Sal, posted an announcement to the Facebook group “Sayang Our Singapore’s Community Cats”, requesting help regarding the cat hoarder case.

She called it a “cat tsunami”, and asked people to help by donating cages, litter and litter trays.

Flat Was In A Terrible State

According to Mothership, the post caught the attention of another animal rescuer, Fiona Loh, who realised that it was happening in her feeding area and decided to look into the case.

She paid a visit to the HDB flat, along with Sal, on 26 August 2019, and was shocked at the condition of the flat.

The walls and floor of the flat were full of urine and poop stains, and several furniture items were soaked with urine and poop as well. She took a few pictures and videos of its terrible state and uploaded them onto her Instagram page.

Alright, I’ve officially lost my appetite for the rest of today. 

The hoarder, who’s a single mother of two children, has started to clean up the house by scrubbing the walls and floor, and also throwing away soiled furniture.

But there’s still a long way to go before the flat can be considered to be an acceptable level of cleanliness.

Cats Were Unsocialised

According to Loh, the fellow rescuer arranged for the cats to be sterilised on 3 September. However, they were only able to get 31 out of 32 cats, as the last one “could not even be caught”.

An estimated 20 cats were unsocialised with humans despite living with the hoarder and her children.

In her Instagram post, Loh also mentioned that the hoarder’s neighbour was furious and shouted at the rescuers for bringing the cats back to the flat after taking them away for sterilisation.

But Loh did explain that it was not possible to take them all away to the boarding facility in one go, especially since they were suspected to be parvovirus-positive.

On 7 September, Loh brought 10 cats to the boarding facility, to be boarded in an isolation cattery.

Donations Are Needed

Personally, I’m not a huge fan of cats and all of this really sounds like a nightmare to me.

But, knowing that they’ve been living in such horrible conditions really does break my heart.

The cat rescuers are appealing to the public for help, as it is definitely not going to be cheap to ensure that all of these cats are tested for illnesses and are able to stay in the boarding facility.

The boarding charges for the isolation cattery are about S$900 per month per cattery, according to Loh.

“If you are able to help by contributing to their boarding and medical fees, wet food, spot-on applications or even miscellaneous stuff like shampoo, ear-cleansing solution, towels etc, kindly DM me. Please also help share this appeal. Thank you!” she posted.

If you’re able to help these cats in any way, do contact Loh via her Instagram page, @fioloh.

Meanwhile, if you think anyone else that you know might be a cat hoarder too, do reach out to The Cat Welfare Society for help, to prevent their situation from getting as bad as this one.