Replies to '03/07 When Too Much is ... Too Much'

Well, you certainly have a point of sorts, but given that the vast majority of professional help is still directed at humans, and given the general unreliability of the species anyhow, I for one will stick with the animals here as I do everywhere else.  After all, the health and welfare of TWO HUNDRED living creatures in the hands of a woman with a marked psychiatric disorder is rather, uh, an attention-grabber, esp to animal-lovers or people actually involved in the animal welfare trade. 

And Dr. Phil was the one who put that story on the air because the hoarder topic was of interest to him and because he apparently wanted to highlight two radically different manifestations of the syndrome..  He probably expected a split in focus on the two stories, being the kind of guy who seems rarely if ever any more caught off guard by much, let alone by responses to his shows here.

BUT, that said, i like babies too, and since i saved the episode,  I'll go watch that other story.  never did, and see if i agree with you that the case is so extreme that they don't get to have any more babies before they clean up their act.

On the surface, that would seem an extreme position, tho..  Babies don't take up that much room, and the prospect of one arriving in 9 months may be the very inspiration they need to get off the dime about their mess.  Not that I would at all advocate having babies for purposes of solving some unrelated problem....

:)

I agree that these people probably have no business bringing another baby into the world OR that house.  They would just lose the kid in that mess.  But there are many people on this planet that have no business bringing babies into this world.  That is why there are foster homes and adoptive parents.  Unfortunately, once the child comes into the world, it's too late to say "Oops! Mistake!".  You can't return it and get your money back.

But to answer your question, there are people put on this earth to worry about what human babies have  endured because of "human" beings and there is another group put on this earth to worry about what animals have endured because of "human" beings.  And since there

are many more people worrying about human babies than furry babies, to some of us cats ARE

more important than human babies.

From the way you worded it, my guess is that you are no lover of cats and that you look at pets as disposable possessions rather a member of the family and a lifelong committment.