We're assuming everyone has been reading the spate of cat-hoarding stories this year. An old lady lives with 450 cats, 220 of them dead; another old lady lives with 300 cats, many dead or mangled. Etc.
Early studies have come up with a profile of these ladies:
After interviewing nearly 50 hoarders, Patronek said, "We're starting to tease out a profile of somebody who probably suffered childhood trauma. They may have had absent parents or unstable parenting. Animals were the only stable fixture in their lives. And perhaps they developed unusually strong bonds with their animals."
In many instances, he said, the obsessions with pets disappeared in early adulthood.
"But ultimately they turn back to animals later in life, and when that return occurs, it's really in a dysfunctional kind of way. And we see the hoarding begin."
Link.
Great. Most of these hoarders appear to be in their late seventies to late eighties, and hence they grew up well before the divorce revolution of the later 20th century. When children born in the late 1960s start reaching their octogenarian years, we'll probably start finding cat hoarders on every street. Heck, it might even become a civil right.
