Thinking back on the phone call reporting October’s UHaul hoarding case still makes our hearts sink to this day.

On the evening of October 2nd, 2021, we were contacted about a hoarding atrocity involving 41 defenseless cats found senselessly packed into an unventilated UHaul.

The cats were miraculously found by an off-duty police officer in the parking lot of a Cordele County gas station. She happened to notice a suspicious amount of carriers stuffed layers deep in the trunk of a UHaul when the owners opened the trunk. 

The officer approached the drivers and learned that they intended to transport these poor animals all the way from Florida to Iowa in this horrific condition. Knowing it was illegal to transport animals in this cruel way, the officer prosecuted the drivers, and Cordele Animal Shelter was contacted immediately.

With an intake of this size, our friends at Cordele Animal Shelter knew their limited capacity would be surpassed. And for an animal control facility, their only unfortunate option to handle lack of space was euthanasia. 

The shelter and heroic officer reached out to our team at Furkids and reported the situation at hand: all 41 cats would be euthanized by the morning if a rescue failed to step up and save them. 

Without hesitation, we agreed to welcome each and every one of the neglected cats into the Furkids program. We believe no animal should be euthanized due to lack of space. And just two days later, we processed 41 intakes into our program while scrambling to find enough fosters to host several scared, traumatized cats.

Several of the cats had fleas, eye infections, serious dental damage and more. It was going to take our entire medical staff and an influx of donations to vet these new Furkids. 

Luckily, as the months went by, foster homes emptied and adoptions increased steadily. Today, we’re overjoyed to report that seven months later, each and every one of the UHaul Hoarding Case survivors have been adopted! Morada’s adoption on May 3rd, 2022, marked the final adoption as a foster faill!