Posted by Cindy W on February 9, 2000, at 9:19:32
In reply to Re: Update on the Depressed Person's Lair-CINDY, posted by Noa on February 9, 2000, at 6:22:26
> Cindy, thanks for telling us about the guinea pigs and frogs. I have to admit, it is hard for me to picture 2000 of them, or to imagine the amount of space needed.
>
> I hope you don't mind my questions, but I find this intriguing. If you do mind, just say so or don't answer.
>
> You said this is a matter of hoarding. when you amassed the guinea pigs, did you have a specific thought or thoughts as to why you needed them? Is this something you have done your whole life? Did hoarding start small and become a larger problem? Do you tend to focus on animals? Does having the 'flock' bring feelings of comfort?
>
> Finally, how DID you walk away? How did your housing situation change? What happened to the guinea pigs? Is your frog collection posing a housing problem now?
>
> Curious NoaNoa, I used to collect books, then houseplants, then when I returned to California from St. Louis (when I completed grad school), I gave most of the plants away (grudgingly...I had hundreds), then after having an abortion, got my first guinea pig, who of course didn't fill the "hole" inside me, so I got another guinea pig, then more, then they bred, then I had 24, then a couple hundred, then a couple of thousand. After the city and everybody came after me several times, I took most of them (the ones I could catch) to a breeder in Texas, in an airconditioned van (my husband and I took turns driving). Then, I had only 80, and they were the oldest ones (one eye, ugly, problems, and the fast ones I couldn't catch before). Now they have been going by attrition (are over l0 years old, and I only have 14 left). I got into frogs when I moved into a tiny ranchhouse (I had to move away from my home 2 l/2 hours away because they closed the hospital where I was working, and I had to take a job in a prison, and my husband stayed in the house we had bought...now I'm renting and my only companions are treefrogs, and I immediately of course wanted to raise tads (the frogs were happy to accommodate), and then I got into saving tadpoles from a pond that was drying up in town, and the rest is history! I think I focused on living things because it meets my need for "mothering" and because I have this terrible sense of responsibility for living as well as inanimate things (why I cannot give away old clothes or plastic bags and cannot even sell my old car after I got a new one...it would have to have the "right home").--Cindy
poster:Cindy W
thread:19971
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20000209/msgs/20898.html