Cattery von Dandeloh Explanation about the cats of cattery von Dandeloh Because there is obviously a lot of controversy, about the cats that we have taken from cattery von Dandeloh, we see it necessary to explain the situation here. Also we are now publicly announcing who the breeder is, as we don’t see any reason to protect them in any way! In May 2009 Mr and Mrs Wlodarzcak knocked on our door for help. They were evicted of their home, with all their animals (more then 20 cats and 2 dogs) We offered them shelter and supported them with goods and money. We arranged for Mr Wlodarzcak to get a job ( € 2000,- netto a month!) through Dennis’ firm. This is what happened next: They build up a debt with the payment of the rent (we charged € 450,- a month for a house with 4 bedrooms, including gas, water, Electricity)They came to borrow money from us, for grocery, petrol for the car so he could go to work etc… They also borrowed money from people from work, embarrassing Dennis in his firm! The money never came back! After a while, the bills and problems piled up, also the dept with us and others. All we heard were empty promises and lies, therefore we saw it fit, to end their rent contract with us and evict them from our house. By that time we had the strong impression, that they had gotten themselves into a situation that was growing over their heads and the helping hand we were offering was being miss-used instead of used. Together with Petra (cattery Manalishi) we talked them in to letting some of their cats go, making their situation easier. This resulted in (only) 3 cats that came here emaciated and traumatised.2 boys and a pregnant female (for the 3rd time in 1 year!)  In November 2009 they left to their new home. When they were supposed to give back our key, there was still 2 cats in the house, that they  “couldn’t get hold off” .Mr Wlodarzcak came back for 2 more days, trying to catch these cats, but every time returned with bloody yet empty hands. After that we said: there must be something wrong here. Leave the key, bring the papers, WE will catch the cats and keep them! When we went over to take a look what was going on, we found the cats in a room 2.5m x 2.5m WITHOUT daylight! (no window) and I could cry. It’s the room on the attic where the heating boiler is. The girl and (open) boy, have been there from Mai until November 2009, we can only speculate, but we assume that the lights (fluorescent lamp very bright)went on 1-2 a day, given (maybe) some food and water. No need to explain, that any living creature in those condition goes out of their mind! Until then I had no reason to assume, that these people were keeping some of their cats in these conditions, they were living in a big house with 4 bedrooms, garden, you name it! But I can promise this ,I have terrible guilt over the whole thing!!! The litter tray was over flooding, there was hardly any water and no food at all. The scratching post was in a more than poor condition and the room stank to high heaven. Both cats were sitting pressed to each other in fright,  in a corner impossible to reach. In July the girl had 3 kittens. Two days after birth she ate 1 kitten, the next day another, then Mrs Wlodarzcak came here asking me if I would put that kitten with one of my girls, which I did. Beware: at that time I was NOT aware of the situation on how these cats were being held!!! After all this I know: the girl was put with the boy in to a dark room, to produce kittens! Mrs Wlodarzcak came here, crying to tell her cat was eating the kittens and she didn’t understand why! We had to use tranquillizers to catch the cats. The boy had several wounds, probably due to the catching attempts, because we found some bloody gloves and a broomstick in the room. Both animals were skin & bones, had infected eyes, worms, fleas and a rough and filthy coat. We separated them here to give them some peace and get used to daylight again. Good food, clean water and a clean litter tray was obviously a luxury they were not costumed to. Physically they got better, but they are so tremendously traumatised, that the boy spend the First 2 weeks under his basket (and I was scared every day to lift it and find him there dead) And the girl was pressed into a corner, with eyes wide open in fear. After 2 weeks we got the papers of the cats, but before that we had a Phone call saying: what colour is the girl? They didn’t even know what cats they were missing!!!! The boy was approachable after a while. He let it come over him, but he clearly didn’t know what to do with kind words and cuddles. He’s sitting stiff as a rock on my lap, but will run back to his bed as soon as I let him go, back to sitting like a rock, staring at me. The girl was absolutely feral. She growled as soon as she heard footsteps, was hissing and spitting as soon as somebody was in her sight and jumped against the walls of the bench in absolute terror. After we had the cats a while, we feel able to make a resume on their development and think the boy can be rehomed, after neutering, to a quite and understanding home, with patient people. The boy is clearly showing signs of improvement and little trust in humans again, although it will still take time to make him realize, that was has been done to him, is not normal Fortunately the girl was not pregnant. This was our biggest fear. Because we could not touch her, we had to wait to see. Now after more then 2 months, we knew that she was spared from a pregnancy from her half- brother. Unfortunately her trauma was much worse than the boy, she was 4 years old, so had twice the torture done to her by Mrs Wlodarzcak, for reasons our minds just can not comprehend! The girl was bred by them so they had her from day one. We can not understand what this poor animal has done to them to get treated like this…… After we have tried everything within our powers (Rescue Remedy, Feromones etc) to try to calm the girl down and nothing helped, we felt forced to ask others for help. We posted on several boards, approached every RSPCA and rescues. The rescues were quite easy with their answer: we can’t help a cat like that, sorry. On the boards we’ve gotten advice, which we all have tried or considered, but none proved to be the right solution. A breeder offered to take the girl in. This breeder lives in UK. This would mean, we would have had to sedate the girl several times, to get her vaccinated (we never got the vaccination papers) after that start the quarantine procedure, including having her for 8 months and having to sedate her more, to get shots and blood tests etc. After that, sedate again, to put her on a plane or boat. Even though we thought the offer very sweet, we feel it would be a tremendous strain for the already traumatised girl and also for the breeder who was willing to take her in. Also…that person would only then really realize how bad her condition mentally was and that it was absolutely impossible to approach her in any way and every time she would be in need of anything (vaccination, worm treatment any health issue), she would have to be sedated, just to be able to touch her. With pain in our hearts we decided to put her out of her misery. This was one of the hardest decision in my life! A physically healthy, 4 year old, who never had any love or fun in her life, to be put to sleep. My anger towards Mrs Wlodarzcak is to big to be put in writing! I had to use a pill, meant for a 12kg dog, to sedate the cat, so I could take her to the vet. In spite of that, she was still fighting me and resisting and I needed gloves and help to put her in the carrier!! ! At the vet we sedated her again and as she lay there sleeping, I was able to pet her for the First time for me but certainly the First time in her life! I can not explain how much this hurt me!!! My finger went through her coat, as I was saying goodbye, filled with guilt, immense sorrow and powerlessness.  This poor animal has never done anybody any wrong and neither her nor me asked for this . And now there’s people judging me over this! People that know the story from the side and just can’t realize how bad the situation was! People who say: Susanne doesn’t love cats, Susanne has put a healthy cat to sleep. Yes, if you look at it that way, I would consider myself a monster too. But Dasha was a physically healthy cat, but in her little head she was filled with Sorrow, Anger, Misery, Fear and most of all pain, pain, pain. This was no easy choice, I spend nights awake over this and my heart aches for a cat that I only knew for a short time, but I think I made the right decision, in Dasha’s  interest! I respect other peoples opinions, but don’t you dare to call me a person who doesn’t love cats!!! It’s not ME who is the monster here, but Mrs Wlodarzcak, who still has more than 20 cats with her. She has the complete litter from February, not vaccinated, girls, boys, none spayed all running around together, mating each other, you name it. The letters from enforcement officers come here en masse, the RSPCA here won’t or can’t do anything. We can not “just” get 20+ cats out of there, not vaccinated, neglected and traumatised, maybe even pregnant and take them here! I’d rather have some help, instead of judgement, while I am trying with limited resources, to do what I can. Torn by sorrow for what I though necessary to do and for what I still see here every day in the intense hurt eyes of the cats we still haven Am I angry? YES Furious!!! We only tried to do good, by helping people in need, by helping cats in need. Now I am being judged even though I am still trying every day to find a solution for the cats that are still there and for the ones we have rescued. In the meantime my friend Petra – who is helping me and supporting me -  gets e-mails saying that “she is just as bad as Susanne” and that people don’t want to have anything to do with her, because like me she “doesn’t love cats” and we are being torn apart on boards. At least I try, in spite of such mean and vicious words and judgement! I don’t have to say names here, but I do have to say this: Shame on you!!! Shame on you badly!!! Reading or hearing is completely different than experience it for real !!!Do you want the real guilty ones? Mr. WlodarczakMrs. Wlodarczak. Maybe I could have found an other solution, at least that what some people think, but after considering everything, in spite of the pain it caused me (and still does) I feel that this was in the best interest of Dasha. update: 20-1-2010.The one responsible for the negative words concerning my decision with Dasha, has offered genuine apologies to Petra and me. Apparently there was a misunderstanding about the true condition of Dasha and her state was severely underestimated. Of course we are glad about this and have excepted the apology. We hope that others, who followed this "wrong" opinion, will come to see, that I am the last person that will ever hurt, no matter what animal, for no matter what reason, or put it to sleep without a severe reason update: 29-1-2010.After they managed to build up a debt in rent at the new place too, our "friends" have decided to split. As far as we know, back to Germany, which is good because they can't do anymore damage here (except the € 30.000,- on bills we have here now) and because the German RSPCA is much more strict then ours. All bailiffs, collection offices, creditors etc are being kept up to date by me. update 13-2-2010. Pinto wil be moving to Berlin next week, where he will be adopted by a loving family and spoiled for the rest of his life. We have absolute confidence that Ramona knows what she's doing and with her experience will be able to give Pinto everything he needs and will gain love and gratitude back for it ! update 21-2-2010.A (translated) quote from an e-mail from Ramona:"I think after the first 24 hours, that he will never run towards us because he is happy to see us. It is terrifying the way he approaches us with so much paralysing fear. It's only the beginning. We will do everything within our powers to make him feel comfortable. I must say I feel ashamed about this family, who have ruined his life until now. What have they done to him?.....speaks for itself and I understand perfectly what she means. We are truly happy that Ramona is putting so much afford in to Pinto to give him a quality life and we are convinced that she will make him feel like a cat again and make him purr for the first time in his life. update:2012 In the meantime all cats that we have rescued, besides Pinto, have passed away. Tasso, who lived with us, broke his hip shortly after arriving here, when he tried to jump on the couch. His bones were so fragile due to lack of nutrition, that he couldn’t make a simple jump like that! He did recover but never 100%.We can honestly say he had a good time here, he was friendly with all other cats and loved to lay in the sun. Unfortunately his condition was so poor that his organs just couldn’t cope anymore and we allowed him to cross over  rainbow bridge peacefully Frenny stayed traumatized and didn’t want to be touched or pettet. She was good with the other cats, but just didn’t trust people at all. Amazingly enough she would jump on ones lap, screaming loudly and affectionet like a kitten, if someone had a piece of bread in their hand!!! Not bisquits, not fresh meat, just plain BREAD !!!!! Anybody reading this can draw their own conclusions..... Her physical condition was so poor that she had to be put to sleep after a couple of months. Balthazar Also here the horrible consequenses of neglect. Nothing showed on the oudside, but it was strange that he didn’t gain weight and when he was eating bisquits he had a hard time swallowing. There was nothing showing in his mouth or teeth, so we switched food to can and fresh only. Just a few weeks later he started throwing up little amounts of blood. Research showed that the poor animal was overgrown with (stomach) ulcers all the way until up in his oesophagus!! The poor creature hardly had space left in his stomach for food and with swallowing he must have had unbearable pain. Section showed that the ulcers even had scar tissue, meaning they had been there for a long time. When even a veterinarian has tears in his eyes, you know how much this animal must have suffered!!! He was put out of his misery..........

This is how we found the cats. Terrified in a corner pressed to each other. These pictures are taken with the lights on, it was pitch black in that room!!

Pinto who’d rather be crushed between a wall, then let himself be touched by people. Full of wounds, fleas, ear mite, worms, infected eyes, emaciated and just one pile of misery.

“The scratching post” One of the rooms with stuff they left behind. Cats lived in this room too! On the ceiling a fly catcher over filled and on the wall bloody snot from the cats!

Pinto Then and now