North Bend Hoarder House Trip Adventure (And Seven Local Cats Fixed)

Window sill poop and hair.

Allegedly once a mattress, used as recently as last night.

Grabbing lunch in a hail storm.

Frig unknown. And it jiggles!

Filthy vent in front of fridge.

Wall scrubbing. All walls were scrubbed and wiped down, as were the poop covered floors.

Patio poop.

Ripping sheets into rags to use.

Kitty slept on this mattress.

Soaking the stove before scrubbing.

Filth at the bottom of the fridge.

Brave fridge cleaner kid.

Hairy door.

Dirty fan. Dead mouse inside.

As the garbage was bagged and removed from the house, the pile got bigger outside. Now, the organizers need donations to cover getting a huge dumpster to put it into to be hauled off.

These were out on the patio which was just horrible and slippery in poop.

Volunteers escape a hail storm that hit right at lunch break.

More patio poop.

Poop and urine covered furniture was the first out of the house and piled outside. Most of it too needs hauled off.


I drove to North Bend this morning. Number one: I had seven more cats in need of fixing. Number two: I wanted to be part of something, the clean up of the North Bend hoarder house.

You can't really call Kitty a hoarder. Her cats were fixed and she has not added to the bunch for many years. She was a rescuer, but then she became disabled and got dementia. Her husband never really chipped in with the work load around the house and that didn't change after his wife became disabled. A recipe for disaster.

I hope I'm getting the history straight.

So S/nipped organized a rescue of Kitty. They got most of her cats out. Most went up to Oregon Cat. They got donations to get the ones medical care who needed it. Many were quite old.

Then they organized the Great Kitty Clean Up for today. The cleaning supplies were Dollar Store bought. Dollar Store brooms, brushes, dust masks, sponges and cleaning supplies. Also on hand, surgical masks and gloves from the S/nipped clinic and clove oil to put on the masks to help mask the smell inside.

The smell was awful. Poop covered the floors, cabinets, furniture, counter tops, beds and deck. It was yukky and that is a severe understatement.

First off, all the furniture got hauled out. Volunteers then began bagging garbage and urine and poop soaked items. Even dishes were poop crusted and the frig was something else again with items inside outdated by half a decade! It was a young boy who tackled cleaning the frig. In fact, several kids were there working their butts off at a very stinky awful job. I was impressed!

But my day began even odder. Just west of Scottsdale, on highway 38, in the dark, early morning, on my way down with seven local cats, six of them from the same Albany household, I saw red tail lights up ahead and slowed. Two trucks and a pickup with a trailer were stopped in front of me. I got out of my car to see what was going on.

Up ahead, in the darkness, a great oak had given way under the onslaught of rain and crashed down across the road probably five minutes before.

Not to worry. Amongst traffic starting to pile up from the other direction, was somebody with a chain saw. We soon heard it roar to life and within 20 minutes, those guys had one lane free of debris. As I drove by them, I rolled down my window and said "Thank you!" One guy, lanky, lean and young, answered with a smile and a "Yup."

First, I had endured driving rain. Then intermittent hail. Just south of Winchester Bay, going up the hill, a deputy flew by me, lights flashing. I was coming down the hill, and right there at the bottom by the first curves, was the deputy. And snow!! On the road.

A car had hit those curves, probably going too fast and slid around backwards and off the side of the road and down a short shallow embankment.

The snow on the road lasted only a quarter mile. But I hit more just south of Tenmile, another short stretch of snow on the highway.

After that, smooth sailing.

I registered the cats at S/nipped for surgery and went off to join the clean up.

Hail hit us there too, right at lunch. Tamara's husband had just brought pizza and set it up on a table and wham, down comes hail, hard and large chunks. People ignored it, although finally most went to eat their pieces of pizza under a tree.

A reporter for The World newspaper came and took photos of the house and interviewed Tamara and Kitty, the woman with dementia who lives there (with her husband).

I left about 3:30 and went back to S/nipped to pick up the seven cats. They have a shower at S/nipped. I used it to wash off the stench of the day and change into the clean clothes I had brought with me.

Then it was back to Albany and delivery right back of six of the cats. The seventh will go home tomorrow.

I took down four boys and three girls, six from one Albany household. One of the females has already had many litters including cats fixed in two previous trips to S/nipped from another Albany household. It was that household who convinced this woman it was time to get her cats fixed. She has another female who needs fixed but right now, she has five young kittens. She has another male too, but he rarely comes home anymore, she said.

I was happy to be part of the Great Cat Clean up in North Bend. It was an honor. And it was fun.