Cat Ladies (Obsessive Cat Owners Documentary) | Real Stories

what I love most about cats is their personality their furry they're warm they are aloof they're independent they're the non prescription antidepressant I call him my boyfriend because he loves me he's my guy my Chester my image of the crazy cat lady is this middle-aged woman who wears thick cats eyeglasses and she lives by herself and I was full of crap dust everywhere in 20 cats you know she's got a couple teeth missing got cats kind of hanging around in her hair unmarried unkempt don't have a life you know and that's sort of they turn to their cats because nobody else will love them when you start to have four or five six ten cats then you're really answer entering into a different realm of reality it's because they've given up on the outside world or the outside worlds given up on them and this is who they have and this is who they relate to but just because you know a single woman has cats doesn't mean she's a crazy cat lady did you hear that Chester agrees with me it is hardly a compliment when it's thrown at you but people don't go oh you know I love your big sweaters with cats on it and stuff Lee you know they don't call you a crazy cat away you need to give you a compliment [Music] my name is Margo and I am proud to say that I am a cat lady I think that cats are the most beautiful animal in the world one day it was out and Bongo just happened to walk across it and played this beautiful music and now she plays it more than I do so she's very good isn't she I don't live alone I live with three cats they talk they communicate with me all the time fritz cats you know they they are oh my God look at that I just have to look at that for a second isn't that sweet is she looking at you yeah these are good ones she's so sweet and I love the way her her paws are crossed over they're my babies I had a dream once with my cat ginger that I was breastfeeding her it's just that I'm their mother and that's what mothers do with their babies [Music] I've got three sets of pet stairs so that Fritz can get up on either one of the couches here in this little cat box or I don't know how many maybe 200 whiskers and whenever I'm cleaning or you know walking route or sitting somewhere I'll come across a whisker and and I'll think of it as a little present Fritz would say little one would say and Bongo that's who I am I am Margo and she's got three cats that's just the way the way it is and I don't know what else to be honestly I'm like a walking contradiction I wear my heart and sleeve at the same time I'm like sometimes I'm just like pretty cold I have friends I go out not like a lot I have a full-time job I'm in real estate s all new houses it's feast and famine most people would never know I have a cat problem if I'm eating me hopefully by the time they get to know me I'm so charming it doesn't matter hopefully my name is Jenny I'm a cat lady because I love kitties because they're independent they do what they want to do they don't care and I have 16 of them it's very peaceful I'm alone but I'm not like I'm not alone I'm not gonna lie I talk to them knives I appear to be put together you know friendly whatever people can't believe that at 35 years old that I'm not married and I don't have any kids I think I'm a great catch and then it's kind of depressing that I guess no one else has seen that but again then I have the cats that's an excuse I'm fine don't worry I'm not like I'm not on medicine or anything like that anymore anyone know you're not behaving come on boy honestly I'd be happy with like conjugal visits at this point like I don't care we don't you don't have to get married we don't have to like have a kid or anything even you know separate rooms we'd be fine and then I could have my things and that would be fine I'd kicked the cats out of the room and I've actually had a couple boyfriends when I've had several cats like I mean it doesn't just one of them was stoned all the time so maybe I think that's why and then he must have forgot to smoke one day and he was like oh my god I've got a girlfriend and then that's what ended that it wasn't the cats so I mean I know it's possible for Kitty I don't see anything wrong with being a cat lady and having 16 cats I can take care of them but I'm not hurting anybody how does it have anything to do with anybody else that's why I don't think there's anything wrong with it only if it's out of hand and you know you get counseled over the place that you can't take care of there's something wrong with that three four five six [Music] 49 49 50 [Music] 70 71 72 73 okay fine Oh bless you 16 123 Alleluia ah how did I get there my name is Diane I'm a cat lady used to be a business person now I'm a cat lady why because some cats came my way we can't save all of them however once I see them I'm done I have to take care of them I have to go gently not Stickle and that's fish fish come on come on mommy's come on mummies mummies mummies mummies come on oh come here this business of rescuing is for for people who are strong because it's it's not for the faint of heart people I'm telling it it's hot it's hard I've worked hard all my life but this is the hardest I've ever worked okay I just need a bit of kitten food for the kittens I have my monthly expenses my wits including litter dry food wet food three thousand dollars right now it's getting tight no no answer okay well no because I have it I just have an overdraft up to three thousand and I know I'm at about maybe two thousand now I'll do it thousand I'll give you five hundred tomorrow the day after I just don't want to there's no problem I just want to done in your account that's all you never never are you done with this when you think you're getting better it gets worse some can get sick I don't sleep eight hours in a row I go three hours here three I was there I fall asleep on the sofa and a three I wake up my routine consists of cleaning the litters replenishing the dry food I have a girl that something helps me in the middle of the night [Music] people do call us crazy cat ladies and SES were crazy this is my answer [Music] I find it rather amusing that people would call me the crazy cat lady because I don't look at myself that way I am motivated to take in every cat that I see running loose that needs a home and has that panic scared look on its face I think I'm a lot more sane than the people that can handle leaving a cat out in the middle of winter to freeze to death or starve to death now I think that's crazy my name is Ziggy I'm a cat lady because there are too many strays and abandoned cats out on the street that are neglected and need a place to go I'm always cooking chicken or turkey soup we have that every day to that I add cat food I just have to keep reminding myself not to lick my fingers after I've done it okay this will do it for now here's sweeties aperitif there you go here's sweethearts come here pumpkins come there you go there's some for you guys there come here sweet ease come on come on honeys come on there you go tiger come on sweeties come on come on honey's they're nice to wipe off the hands they'll clean themselves off later there we go sweeties come on sweeties there are you gold pumpkins there you go March mud Snider come on honey where's my Georgina come on buttercup Daryl we call there we go okay this room is my well what I call my bedroom I I sleep here with probably around ten cats I no longer have a bed I wasn't allowed to keep the bed Humane Society seemed to think it was a source of contamination so I sleep on a lounge chair here it's easy to scrub down it's plastic all my little private things went to the dump or they went into storage after a while it's almost like well they've totally be personalized yourself so I started buying up toys I always liked dolls when I was growing up my mother was a doll a fan so it brings back good memories it just gives you a feeling of peace I had a difficult childhood like a lot of people it wasn't it wasn't overly happy wasn't overly happy from all the way back that I can remember no it definitely wasn't that happy a childhood I was picked on because we spoke German and it was after the war and we were called little Nazis every year somebody in the neighborhood was nice enough to paint a swastika on the side of our house when I got picked on when I was a kid I quietly retaliated and I've always been sort of a fighter for the underdog whenever somebody was picked on for some reason whether they were Jewish or black or Asian they had me to deal with [Music] you've got cats that come in that are old cats that come in that are sick people don't want them so what are you going to do with them they're second-class citizens they're like the Negroes used to be in the States they had to sit in the back of the bus [Music] [Music] Fred's here I think of myself as a very warm compassionate kind gentle person I'm hard on myself I think that I should be at a certain place in my life at the age I am now and I'm not when when finally I quit school I became a nanny for a couple of years my parents would always say you should be a receptionist because you have such a nice voice and so that's what I started doing [Music] now that I've done that it's like well I can do more I want to do more I look at my relationship with my cats and I think that I am successful with them I take good care of them and they're happy and they're loved and it's something I'm very proud of I know I missed you too okay me when I was four well I was adopted at fifteen months old and this is a picture of my dad holding me shortly after and he looks very very happy he looks very proud I on the other hand I'm not so happy I was adopted into a family of high achievers very academic and I wasn't like that I wasn't the same I didn't look the same my skin is darker my hair is curly I just felt like I couldn't do anything right my cats that's what saved me yeah they loved me they weren't mad at me they accepted me for who I was how's John Happy New Year Thanks did you go away for the whole day at all no anybody come to you no I was supposed to go to my sister's for our Christmas dinner supposed to yeah well I went technically but I was knocking and they were inside fighting and then I kept knocking and then they kept fighting more and then I pounded on the door and then she screamed at me to wait and then she came to the door in her pajamas and I said I'm sorry I didn't know if you could hear me knocking over your domestic and if this is what its gonna be like here's your present here's Steve's president I'm out of here she's a little bit younger than you isn't she yeah yes and then I went home and had leftover Chinese food oh but you know why it was my decision I just I couldn't handle fighting Paul I wouldn't want to go in either yeah it's not the first time so she got home and played your violin I practice here okay all right well let's do the the new roundabout let's see what you got all right and uh one [Music] relationship with my sister in a word strained and I don't come siblings normally get along but we have kind of a strange relationship she doesn't like me she's told me as much but the same time we're family so we're good in crisis situations that seems to be when we all come together but yeah we're not close we're not loving W by any means Hey how's it going cool is there okay it's always been like this it's just kind of something I put up with but at the same time it's frustrating because she can't see past okay she's got a husband and two kids and me that maybe that's normal for most people doesn't mean that if it doesn't happen there's something defective about me she kind of works the like you're defective angle and I don't feel that I'm I'm defective but not in a bad way I wanted to start playing the violin because it was a regret that I had from my childhood I took lessons when I was 9 and I fell off the bed and broke my bow in half because I landed on it and my dad said if I wanted to keep playing then I'd have to pay for the bow myself and I'm like I'm 9 warming and I get like 60 bucks or whatever maybe I just kept that live in my memory bank something to work on my father is a raging alcoholic wife-beating child abusing bigoted cop all the student call the city cop stereotypes was him a lot of my love of animals came from when I was younger my mother really likes cats and my mom always baring her face and then cats that's that was the purpose of the cats for cuddles someone was going down and I couldn't rely on my mother and I was the oldest so I have to look after my brother and sister kind of thing I just grabbed a cat off to my room like they're always there the cats were always there [Music] all right is I can see your snack I have this sickness where I need to take care of things and I don't have a husband and kids to take care of is he I've always only had my animals to take care of not you come on is there you go it's like I I snap I go into this mode where they think there's no there's another choice I don't know a life without my cats wouldn't be life again maybe not so many but yeah do you have to have you have to you but yeah these guys I don't know take care of me by letting me take care of them [Music] six years ago I started Cat Rescue around this time of the year I was actually driving on this road going up I saw a cat and long story short that was a cat that had been left by a woman who moved away and in November and it cats had been outside since so I just proceeded to feed the cat and five cats came and I started to rescue cats from then on poor cats my goodness gracious if they only lived by me they're gonna be skinny this is what we do when we look for cats we go everywhere and when there's snow it's easier because we see the steps dah dah dah you go down there I'd like to see where these go yeah it's better that way cat rescuers are unofficial our mission is to protect the animal and give it shelter give it food and hopefully find it at home I guess it serves a purpose in my life for now [Music] [Music] I never knew I was going to do rescue to the extent I am doing now okay this is uh this is my former life here sound fully included heals everything briefcase rush rush looking good feel good lots of pressure I worked 40 years for a bank I had fun I traveled the world I met lots of people I have lots of friends after the merge of this Bank with another Bank I lost my job we were called up in the morning and then they called us one by one and they said they're here we don't know how we're gonna do without you on but we're willing to try yeah retirement I'm here I used to dance ballet play piano I also like to drink wine that was on a trip with my girlfriend in Italy that's nice I I miss my friends one lady here she lost her husband I couldn't even go to the funeral I couldn't even in retrospect I started to really trap cats and save them when I retired I mean until I retired that was I had just a small amount of cats and after that I went crazy and it's not good it saves the cats but it doesn't save me [Music] feral cats living on the street have a pretty tough life [Music] Toronto's a big place I'd say easily eight to ten thousand cats out there in feral colonies that are that are homeless in defending for themselves [Music] they really don't know where their next meals coming from and if they're injured in the wild they can't hunt they can't walk they can't get to a safe cool or warm place and they die [Music] my name is agent Trey Smith I'm the lead animal cruelty investigator for the Toronto Humane Society [Music] I'm gonna go around and assess which ones are an immediate distress like these these kittens here with the URI [Music] look is it there's a dead one over here where right there see that dead kitten right there okay okay yeah grab a little uh cat boxes and meet me over here we get about 10 to a dozen cat hoarding calls a year I would say 99% of my cases the people who are cat hoarders are who think that they're doing what's best for the cats are women in the City of Toronto you're allowed to have six cats under one roof and anyone over than that it's deemed to be excessive how you feeling okay I think I think a cat hoarder and a cat rescue or almost will are almost one in the same because if you ask a cat hoarder they believe they're rescuing those animals from the street they believe that they're making a difference in providing shelter for that animal whereas it would die on the street and and are be in the colder extreme heat in another two weeks the cats will all be in heat which means 62 days later we've got kittens we don't need any more cats so right now the crunch is on the next couple weeks hopefully I will be bringing in a large majority of the female cats that are out there this trapping cage isn't the world's best huh bleeding already now it's a waiting game just have to wait and see when the cats show up eat eat wash the blood off my hands there's hoping it's not coffee it is okay okay there she is we got action you have to learn patience is she in she's in she can't get out okay we got her hi sweetie kitty-kitty-kitty there we go we're safe now come on sweet it's okay okay okay sweetie dare we dare we go okay calm down no honey come on after you've trapped them you feel like you've won you've won something when you see the look on their face literally the look of surprise that somebody cares about them and we'll take care of them so that's that's two more down and about seven more to go and a couple more hundred thousand out there to bring in in all I'd say I've taken way over 3,000 cats off the street oh no no go on sweeties I know say hi to the new little girl go on bosey mosey beat it no no no no come on sweeties come on sweeties this is gonna be fun I guess in a way I am no mother Teresa of these cats cuz otherwise all of these cats would have met a horrendous end out on the street either been killed on the road poisoned trap turned into the main society and killed that way feral cats 99.9% of them cannot be socialized in any way and to and to believe that they can you're fooling yourself that's a good girl there you go there you go sweetheart oh okay it's okay it's okay okay they know nothing but to be outside and to take them away from their environment against their will I think isn't right and I I believe that those animals will probably die sooner rather than if they were out fending for themselves sweetie they don't have the the know-how they're not veterinarians and unless they have the means to have a veterinarian come in and recognize signs of distress recognized illnesses and treat them immediately to prevent them from spreading I don't think they should be doing it do I question their motives absolutely not they're doing it for a reason whether it's because they're lonely or whether it's because they think that they're helping those cats but I don't think it's healthy they're just a little outside of the realm of normality I'd say I'm not a hoarder I do not want to keep any of these cats there isn't one cat in this house outside of some seriously ill ones that I know are better off with me because I know how to treat them I would like to see them all go and find a new home then I'd be able to take in another hundred cats it seems that everybody is out to get you because they don't understand what you're doing they don't like what you're doing and they do things differently two years moving into the end of January you don't see your backyard very much so you started getting out at Maine looking at the beds and the pool and wondering what the pool looks like open because we've never seen hoping before and hoping the line I would not bleak and and then we started noticing some of our neighbors and they were good and bad September 12 at night smells terrible in the driveway number 13 in the morning smell was overpowering and driveway and backyard planned on planned on eating outside in the morning or in the morning with coffee to enjoy the morning it was really nice that's note here really nice morning first morning in a while we had together but we weren't able to with the smell moved inside and closed all the doors windows on Ziggy sides to the house as it was carrying inside in our mind you can't just put a name I'm a rescuer and all of a sudden you are a rescuer this is a residential neighborhood and that's quite clearly not a residential neighborhood activity people like them really should get themselves a hobby instead of just trying to find fault in somebody who's doing something for Humanity when they aren't we were quite frustrated and we didn't feel that we were getting any attention and we said well this is a story we're going to make it a story so we called the kW record and they they were blown away then I don't really think they believed us at first but then we had a reporter come out and his eyes were as big as saucers he couldn't believe it we didn't think it would be such a huge story but it was quite this story away that good enough happening even if I stopped what I was doing it'd be ten years before these cats are gone in one way or another at least 10 years so what what purpose would it serve to get me to stop taking in more cats to try and change the 10,000 cats out there is an absolutely monumental task that can be taken by one or two or 10 rescuers or hoarders it can't even be taken by you know an organization like the Toronto Humane Society I think it is an addiction I think once you get started and you're already waist-deep what's the difference if you're neck deep you know what I mean but the difference is once you're at your neck it's very soon after that that you're drowning it's not ideal for the cat I know this and that's why I want for me I want to get them all homes I'm a survivor okay so I can have a lot and this is now too much for me I'm at risk for the law I'm at risk for my health I know I'm doing a good thing but I think it's a little bit too much hmm leave this open you okay mommy okay wait wait wait wait it's okay you know talk a little John sees not see okay sometimes I'm like I'm just too tired I can't even do the little squatting I have to sit on the ground [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] I kept that message it's only nearly a year at the end of March it'll be a year then I have that message I keep it because it just makes me feel so good you know and the kid singing at the end with the high pitch it's cute it's beautiful it's beautiful I love it now I'm starting to say I'd like to see my family I'd like to see these kids I don't and I start to resent what I'm doing you know when I go out I don't want to come back here just look at this this is my not quite my style of living [Music] [Music] well it's been an emotional and stressful last two and a half weeks Bongo is is very sick she's been throwing up a lot of file the not knowing what's going on with her is so frustrating I wish that I wish that she was able to say what was wrong and you know I would I would do anything if I could she could just tell us [Music] baby girl pretty kini bong bong go small go from the Congo oh yeah we're gonna get you better we're gonna get you better yeah you're gonna have some surgery today I can't imagine coming home every day to an empty apartment I think that a lot of people don't know that I'm as lonely as I am yeah like I I try not to think about it myself but but I am I need more than the cats and I'm not saying to them that they're not enough because they are plenty the cats are plenty but I need something else to do outside it's weird cuz I bet I've lived here almost all my life and and the friendships I have are so minimal it would be really nice to have a boyfriend but it would be really nice to have a friend he likes getting manhandled [Music] I just I wish he didn't have so many but I don't know if I had gone back that I would be able to do anything any differently than I've done it yeah they've stopped me from doing a lot of things forming relationships traveling I've just given my personality they've kind of been a good excuse to I don't like to fail so if you don't try then you can't fail right and if you got a good excuse not to try then there you go [Music] I can't end up having 30 cats then completely over this way I'm like still you know I'm still okay I've got some hope or whatever I'm not sure what the magic number is I'm pretty sure it's close to worry about now but to go over know then I just like then I've given up [Music] yeah then I'm the crazy cat lady and there's no hope for me I don't really miss my life the way it was before cuz that was just superficial come on I found something that gives me a lot more it's okay I see the look of loneliness in their eyes that I can honestly say probably was in my eyes years ago I'm not lonely anymore [Music] many times I regret having gone into Cat Rescue I just can't I have to stop that schedule ii-i've got to lower my numbers [Music] that's why - yeah I would like to move in the country with my cats I will keep the cats that are not adoptable so number wise I don't know how many but anything less than what I have is better I need to solve this I can't leave it like this I have to figure out any way to draft her I'm actually starting to fall apart this is a little shrine for Bongo I've been keeping busy and I think that that's what helps but then when I'm not and I'm alone and it's quiet and I'm thinking about her then it hits me hard like today I reached out to my friends and family during bongo's illness you know everybody was there for me and I've been I don't want to lose that I don't want to lose my connections and my friendships I want them to be stronger before I didn't really know what I meant to my friends and family and now I do [Music] know fee - I hope I have cats in my life for as long as I live I hope that one day someday I'll be able to to have a relationship with a person that is just as amazing you know but for now cats are where it's at [Music] [Music]

Channel: Real Stories

Views: 1,693,395

Rating: 4.7796512 out of 5

Keywords: cat ladies, cat lady documentary, cat lady full documentary, crazy cat lady full documentary, crazy cat lady documentary, cat documentary, crazy cat lady, Cat lady, pets documentary, cat owners, Channel 4 documentary, Full length Documentaries, animal rescue, Documentary, Real Stories, single ladies, Amazing Stories, tlc, loneliness, kittens, Amazing Documentaries, only human, Full Documentary, Documentary Movies - Topic, Documentaries, cats, Extraordinary people, animals, Pets

Id: GdMIUYqochI

Length: 57min 41sec (3461 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 02 2017

Reddit Comments

[u/paytonmaisy]

It went from a person with three cats... to 16... to wait... how many!?

This was a cool documentary. Thanks for the share.

[u/iheartbaconsalt]

Cat Ladies was from 2009.

[u/davou]

omg, I can smell that apartment through my screen

[u/YTTMirrorBot]

Blocked in Australia Mirror: Cat Ladies (2017) Women explain what life is like as a cat hoarder and what led them there (1 hour) ^{58min - 260121 views}

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[u/snowdogmom]

“What I love about cats is their PUR-sonality”

Bye

[u/[deleted]]

I dated a crazy chick and she only had 2 cats.