My $600.00 cat and kitties (heavy with pictures)

Yes this is what greeted us when we were moving into dumpy house in Elizabeth,IL..I think she was checking us out to see if we might be the ones to save her

 This is what we saw when we pulled in driveway to look at house and she was very very skinny and soaking wet from being out in the rain

Here are her babies that she was so protective of coming up by the house to eat..at first we thought we saw some baby rabbits out in the field but then realized it was 4 kittens

 It did take a few days to get them to trust us and know we would not hurt them

 There was 2 that looked a lot alike and some were starting to get a little friendly and trusting

 After about a week they would come by the back door for food

 This is Lola (we named her that) and we put a dish of food inside on porch one day and she came in and sniffed it and left. About 15 minutes later she came back with 4 kittens following her. She wanted to let them know it was safe to come in and eat

We went to animal shelter and they let us use 2 traps to trap the kittens. Lola was not afraid and loved to come by us and rub up against our leg and let us pet her so was easy to ctch her..She would come in every time we opened the door but also wanted to go back out (not so now though).

We had one big dog crate and a friend loaned us another one and Billy started taming them and all but 1 was friendly and liked being petted. Right before we traped them they all disappeared and we hunted everywhere but it was Maggie who finally found them hid in a shed and that is where we put the traps to catch them.(Maggie was and still is facinated with Sassy)

We got some cerificates from shelter to have them spayed and we took Lola first since the kittens were eating the food we gave them. When we went to pick her up the vet said they have never seen such a sweet and friendly cat and they guessed her to be about 2 years old. When they went to do the surgery they discovered that she was pregnant again by about a month . That means she did not have any milk to nurse her kittens and if we had not rescued them they would have starved since they were not old enough for her to teach to hunt for food.
It was very sad learning how her life was for the first few years of her life when we found out that when the house was empty that the LL would come about once a month and stay for a week and just give her a tiny bit of food so she would keep the mouse population down. How dumb was that. He said when he pulled in the driveway she would come running looking for something to eat. He brought her in the house and sometimes he would even lock her in the cellar and never even put a litter box out for her and didn't even clean up after her so you can only imagine what the house was like when we moved in.
Why do you ask did we ever consider renting a house in that condition...well because of other circumstances we ended up living in a Motel for 2 1/2 months with our 4 dogs and 3 cats we already had. We were very depressed and so were the dogs. It was a not so nice motel and cops and ambulances were there 2 or 3 times a week...we had scum bags beating on our door asking for money..food...and a ride to town and even then a camper or tent would have looked good.
The yard in Elizabeth was nothing but weeds that were higher than the top of my legs and LL was supposed to have it mowed but that never happened. Billy went out every day and picked up rocks and all sorts of things and started mowing it with his small gas powered push mower.
This is what it looked like when we moved in (June 3rd)

This was the sidewalk going up yo the back door

This was part of the yard where a farmer tried to come in and bush hog it and needless to say he did a lousey job

This is what it looked like in front of the deck going in the front door

another part of yard and there was rocks and all kinds of junk everywhere (He even found cell phones..shoes..and a swing and other toys.

This is just some of the ruts in driveway we had to drive through to get up near house to carry groceries in

This is over to the left of the deck when we moved in

This is over to the right of the deck near the sidewalk going to back door after Billy took all the rocks and other debree and rusty dented up garbage cans out of there.

This is just one area of feecees that Billy spent many hours scrubbing with bleach. It was like that in every room but I won't bore you with pictures of all the other rooms.

This is a long shot of front of house when moving in

This is a hole in the floor on the one porch that we had to cover with a board to keep wild animals out and anyone from falling in

Billy worked very hard on the yard when weather allowed and the rest of the time he spent scrubbing inside.

The whole upstairs floor looked like this and he couldn't even get it cleaned real good with scraper and bleach. He did have pleanty of things to keep him busy such as leaking pipe in down stairs bathroom that leaked and also one under the kitchen sink that did cause mold. LL refused to fix leak in roof and would not even put a CMD in house that is required by law in IL and cost $20.00...

This is what it looked like in July..Rose bushes and other plants and bushes all around house and lawn (mowed weeds) maintained every day. (Billy made the fence sections for decoration from old barn boards in 2009 and we moved them with us and will do it again) Our Dog Calli had reaction and was itching a lot and we found out that she was allergic to the weeds (even though they were mowed). 

Found new homes for 2 kittens with a vet 90 miles away that would see to it that they had good homes. One that was not real tame went to a neighbor there and we decided we could not move and leave Lola behind and decided to also keep one of her kittens so she wouldn't try and take off when she became an inside cat. It has worked out very well and Lola and Sassy are VERY close and we are happy that we chose to do that. No more litter after litter for Lola or freezing out in a shed and having to catch what she could to eat. (I am sure she would have froze with the weather we are having now) 
 One day right before we moved she knocked a screen out on the porch and went and killed (mutilated) a bird and came back through the same window and dropped it on the floor by my feet. Her own special way of saying thatns Mom and Dad for helping us.
Here are a few pictures of her and Sassy now in their new forever home. She doesn't try to get out and once in a while we see her looking out a window and since she doesn't see fields and sheds she knows she is safe in her new home. Her and Sassy both like the dogs (especially Maggie) and they stick together all the time.

Bought this little cube thing with 3 openings for $3.88 at WM and it was worth every penny just to watch them play in it the first hour they had it

This is a kitty tree and scratching post (since Sassy likes to scratch everything) that a dear friend bought them for Christmas and Lucky likes it too

Sassy waiting for her turn to go up in the tree

Lola and Sassy taking a nap on Mom and Dad's bed

Sassy loves any kind of string..even the lace's on Billy's slippers

Sassy Loves to snuggle with her BIG sisters too

Lola loves Mom and Dad's recliners and if they get up to go in the kitchen or when they go to bed that is where she goes. We also found out that Lola likes to lay on top of a piece of newspaper and we are pretty sure that may be all she had to lay on when locked in the basement.

No more of this Lola

Just this

Lola and Sassy are nice and healthy and have gained weight and that makes everyone happy

Slumlord there (and I could write a book about him) refused to give us our deposit back..We gave him $600.00 security deposit and $300.00 pet deposit (even though the house had feecees everywhere)  Total of $900.00....and after 6 weeks he sent us a ck for $300.00 and is charging us for the 300 gal of propane he claimes he put in tank. Propane was only used for hot water to do dishes (not that many dishes for 2 people) and to take a shower and a lot of hot water to scrub floors. I paid him $76.00 and that should have more than covered any hot water. Plus he says it cost him $47.00 to put ad in paper to rent house (Gee..thats funny..we found the house through an ad on Craigs list)

 I called an attorney (a friend of my one son's Father) and talked to him for about 5 min on phone twice and sent him a copy of lease and all he said is to read all the fine print next time and then sent me a bill for $360.00..No one ever told me when I called that he charges $200.00 an hour for advice. Called another atty office and she said they would charge a min of $600.00 to take it to court. Even though there is a web site for renters rights you still have to take slum lord to court to get deposit back but there is no law to inforce that  LL follows his obligations. Kind of sucks when you live on SS and a small pension. With that being said I figure it cost us $600.00 to rescue some kittens and give a home to 2 of them.

And to top it all off we got suckered again by another smooth talking slumlord that does NOT fix anything or do anything he says he will before you sign on the dotted line. Because of his LIES we have to take our laundry to laundromat just to wash it. Our dryer is plugged in so we bring it home to dry it. Very hard in this kind of weather and so far from Nov 1st to end of Dec we have spent $49.00 just to wash clothes)

 I will not be so stupid here and will NOT be paying my last months rent ($700.00) and will be looking to buy a place of our own. If we have to fix and repair things that are necessary on a weekly basis then we might as well do it for our self and also not have to ask permission to hang a towel bar in the bathroom. I will save the story about this slumlord for another post.

It will be hard to try and recoop $600.00 but I know with hard work..garage sales and selling on line and a lot of praying we will not be in this house no longer than Oct of this year (maybe even sooner and would mean breaking the lease but thats O K..) Will do whatever it takes