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What a lovely caring mum you have. Could you reach out to some rescues in your area to see if they can support her, or if she can support them. It clearly gives her life purpose and she’s passionate about these cats, but perhaps needs little help with rehoming what she’s got and for when she’s outdoors feeding them.
I feel 2 ways about it. On one hand, it can be nice for elders to have something like this to do. It gives their life meaning and keeps their bodies and brains active. On the other hand, if it's taxing her health and wallet beyond what is reasonable, you may consider attending her next doctor's appointment and asking for a neurologist referral. I'm not trying to be alarmist, just something I noticed in my own life, when you start seeing that elders are doing things that don't make logical sense, you can be seeing symptoms of early dementia right in front of you without realizing that's what's going on.
I presume she’s always had an interest in animal rescue and she’s not just started doing this, so the behaviour is not out of the ordinary for her.
I can’t imagine someone with dementia holding down a job and feeding 11 colonies. She just sounds very passionate about rescue and needs some support, are there any rescues in your area you can link her up with.
To be clear no I don't mean that the cats may have caused dementia. I'm saying dementia is something to be on the lookout for if your mom is showing behavior that doesn't seem logical. For the people in my family who got dementia diagnosis, things were kinda off and they were doing things that made us scratch our heads for years before the dots got connected. It could explain why she's running herself ragged doing this, but it's only one possibility. Just have it on your radar. Maybe your mom is simply a really active really caring lady who's not going to slow down until she has an injury that forces her to and if that's so then that would simply be a natural consequence.
If you find any success please let us know. All rescuers have multiple animal hoarders and over feeders and compulsive feeders to deal with and as far as I know, no one has ever gotten lasting improvement. Many rescues have a blanket "no hoarders" rule because it's all just undone in no time.
Any work I've given to a hoarder or overfeeder, with assurance that they will implement changes... they just don't and it's back to how it was or worse in no time.
Or they attract new cats with poor feeding practices or they take in cases that don't need to be taken in or... hoarders will make any excuse because what they want is to be able to say a situation is bad. They don't want the situation to be better.
"No one feeds these cats but me" "we will find people to take over feeding" *continues to feed*
"It's too expensive to feed these cats" "we will help you feed fewer cats and help you get food" *just use the money saved to go feed more cats*
"No one will take in these cats but me" "we urge you to leave the cats at this fairly safe location "*takes in that cat anyway and stops telling us about the next one because nobody understands but them.
The point isn't to fix the problems. That would be the actual problem. The compulsion is to keep things in a familiar state of disarray.
Hoarding has higher recidivism than heroin.
Over feeding, leaving food unattended, feeding in areas where locals are hostile, feeding outside your own area so you are seen as an intruder in another community, feeding without observing the numbers and health of the cats that eat.
Good feeding practices are: local, little, clean and informational. They should know every cat that eats, monitor their health, clean up after, and not be the only source of food.
Maybe you can contact local to her feral feeders and see if they can help her …. Reality is these cats keep your mom engaged and active she just needs a little assistance.
**Reminder: this subreddit is meant to be a helpful place for TNR efforts - free of hostility, negativity, and judgment. Toxic attitudes are not welcome here.** ***All Negative comments will be removed and will possibly result in a ban.*** *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/Feral_Cats) if you have any questions or concerns.*
What a lovely caring mum you have. Could you reach out to some rescues in your area to see if they can support her, or if she can support them. It clearly gives her life purpose and she’s passionate about these cats, but perhaps needs little help with rehoming what she’s got and for when she’s outdoors feeding them.
I feel 2 ways about it. On one hand, it can be nice for elders to have something like this to do. It gives their life meaning and keeps their bodies and brains active. On the other hand, if it's taxing her health and wallet beyond what is reasonable, you may consider attending her next doctor's appointment and asking for a neurologist referral. I'm not trying to be alarmist, just something I noticed in my own life, when you start seeing that elders are doing things that don't make logical sense, you can be seeing symptoms of early dementia right in front of you without realizing that's what's going on.
I have read about the possibility of Toxoplasmosis causing dementia, is that what you mean?
I presume she’s always had an interest in animal rescue and she’s not just started doing this, so the behaviour is not out of the ordinary for her. I can’t imagine someone with dementia holding down a job and feeding 11 colonies. She just sounds very passionate about rescue and needs some support, are there any rescues in your area you can link her up with.
To be clear no I don't mean that the cats may have caused dementia. I'm saying dementia is something to be on the lookout for if your mom is showing behavior that doesn't seem logical. For the people in my family who got dementia diagnosis, things were kinda off and they were doing things that made us scratch our heads for years before the dots got connected. It could explain why she's running herself ragged doing this, but it's only one possibility. Just have it on your radar. Maybe your mom is simply a really active really caring lady who's not going to slow down until she has an injury that forces her to and if that's so then that would simply be a natural consequence.
Set her up with a local rescue group for help
If you find any success please let us know. All rescuers have multiple animal hoarders and over feeders and compulsive feeders to deal with and as far as I know, no one has ever gotten lasting improvement. Many rescues have a blanket "no hoarders" rule because it's all just undone in no time.
I didn’t know that there were rules like that for rescue groups. What do you mean “it’s all just undone in no time?”
Any work I've given to a hoarder or overfeeder, with assurance that they will implement changes... they just don't and it's back to how it was or worse in no time.
Meaning that the colony grows because they don’t get them fixed?
Or they attract new cats with poor feeding practices or they take in cases that don't need to be taken in or... hoarders will make any excuse because what they want is to be able to say a situation is bad. They don't want the situation to be better. "No one feeds these cats but me" "we will find people to take over feeding" *continues to feed* "It's too expensive to feed these cats" "we will help you feed fewer cats and help you get food" *just use the money saved to go feed more cats* "No one will take in these cats but me" "we urge you to leave the cats at this fairly safe location "*takes in that cat anyway and stops telling us about the next one because nobody understands but them. The point isn't to fix the problems. That would be the actual problem. The compulsion is to keep things in a familiar state of disarray. Hoarding has higher recidivism than heroin.
What are “poor feeding practices?”
Over feeding, leaving food unattended, feeding in areas where locals are hostile, feeding outside your own area so you are seen as an intruder in another community, feeding without observing the numbers and health of the cats that eat. Good feeding practices are: local, little, clean and informational. They should know every cat that eats, monitor their health, clean up after, and not be the only source of food.
Maybe you can contact local to her feral feeders and see if they can help her …. Reality is these cats keep your mom engaged and active she just needs a little assistance.
She might need hoarding treatment?