Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Wood ticks and other errata...

So, if you have read anything of this blog before now, you know that my hoarding mother is *somewhat* delusional and her insight is nonexistent. 

So- several days in a row she was complaining of finding ticks on her, on her clothing.  Today she found a tick on one of her strictly indoor cats.  She again attributes it to 'being outside' and talks about bugs in a manner that approaches a belief of spontaneous generation.

Now, in March of this year she found... excuse my vernacular... a turd in her hoarded basement, and an area in which her cats can never reach or are permitted.  She first decided it was 'snake poo' then recategorized it as 'skunk poo'.  Under either classification she is convinced that her hated neighbor used a credit card to enter her house and place it there. Late May she found a cockroach in the kitchen, and she decided that some bananas she purchased where the source despite checking them for 'passengers' or roach eggs.  Now, this tick on a cat in her house.  I have speculated more and more often since March that her house is tipping from a dry/'clean' hoard into a wet/'dirty' hoard.  I suspect the ticks may be another step in this evolution.  

Several years back she was keeping birdseed in a plastic trash can on her front porch, and to her surprise, she had 30-40 mice living on her screened in porch.  Now, fancying herself a modern day Cinderella (at least in her 'special' connection to animals) she refused to listen to my concerns/my ex-husband's concerns that there were easily 3-4 times what she saw present, and that they had to be gaining access to the house.  She will assert that she does not have a single spider or gnat in her home, and other such claptrap.  When she saw one of the mice go up her block foundation and disappear under her vinyl siding, she finally got mouse poison and killed all her new little 'pets'.  She found they had chewed through the bottom of the can, but steadfastly refused that any made it into the house.

She also feeds feral cats, and the birds.  She throws bread, cereal, cookies, and all kinds of crap in the yard 'for the birds' and keeps wet and dry food out for the cats, and as a result of the rural area, and the untended yard and the goat/horse field behind her she is feeding skunks, possums, raccoons and other vermin.  And they are SO CUTE!  Blech.  She also has found fleas on herself, and she steadfastly refuses to hear how the vermin coming in on her porch and etc. could be 'promulgating' the fleas and the ticks.  She also refuses to entertain the thought that something, or several somethings, could have gotten in through a few different routes/methods.

I guess this is how it starts... the poo, the wet hoarding.  I am sadly convinced that if I outlive her, and we are not estranged, that I will have a hoard of the highest classification to clean out.  Dear GOD.  

One bit of comic relief... a bird pooped on her head today.  And she is, once again, perplexed as to why the bird was flying overhead in that area since there is no power lines, etc.  

WOW.  That is all I have to say.  

Now I am going to bed.  Goodnight all.

4 comments:

  1. Instead of asking the City to help her by inspecting the house for living conditions, I decided to step back from mthr's hoard since it really was not my business once I moved to college.

    APS finally stepped in only after she started wandering 25 years later, and now mthr lives in a clean room with heat and A/C, running water and multiple lights that work! When I see how happy she is in Asst Living, I wish I had pushed to get her removed from the house decades earlier.

    She gave me tales of how valuable each item of furniture was, but honestly, who wants to clean and use stuff that has dog and rodent poop all over? It would have been a blessing to her had everything been destroyed in a fire.

    Please consider calling APS and giving an anonymous report before it gets to be the wet dirty hoard. It would make life so much better for her!

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  2. Thank you so much for sharing your experience with you mother. I really value your advice!

    -Lisabeth

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  3. I wrote a long comment with all my dreaded opinions and somehow it is gone? I'll start over. Unknown is correct. The City needs to take a look.

    Also, something to consider. When you inherit the hoard, you may also inherit the neighbors law suits. Cleaning/razing your mother's property will stir up the "roommates" who will go looking for new residence in your Mother's neighbor's houses. More and more neighbors are suing their hoarder neighbors for rodents. I'm very worried about this. Protect yourself and your mother.

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  4. Lisa-

    I had not even THOUGHT of the impact of razing the house and filling in the foundation. ACK! If she has all this vermin, it would cause problems for the neighborhood.

    I did take Unknown's advice and made an anonymous call to APS. They were not helpful, but I will keep trying. And trying. What is it Einstein says about insanity? That would be me. Argh...

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