I’m a Realtor, a journalist, and a 15 year member of my county’s Animal Welfare Advisory Committee; two of my fellow committee members who are directors of local shelters have been begging me to publicize how SWAMPED they are because of animals being turned in due to people losing their homes to foreclosure. We’re also having a terrible time combating all the FREE TO GOOD HOME ads popping up ALL OVER web sites like Craig’s List and Freecycle (which are magnets for the S.O.B’s who are banned from adopting at the shelters). Couple this with our local County Commission’s bass-ackward approach to feral cats ... (one commissioner’s response to my question of how HE thinks it should be handled: “Two words; Humane elimination.” My reply to him: “Two words; how disappointing...’”) we are going NUTS with this situation! I am SO GLAD to see you bring it to light in this national forum, Wnedy. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!

I've been directly involved with this Foreclosure Cat Project in Cincinnati since last summer when 63 cats were discovered sick, starving and practically dead in an abandoned, disgustingly dirty foreclosed-upon house. I fostered 4 of the sickest baby kittens; nursed them back to health and got them adopted out and have been helping with transports, fundraisers, adoptions, etc. since then. As of late February 2008, we've got about 15 of the original foreclosure cats left who still need homes.

I'm quite active with animal rescue, and a realtor in the Cincinnati area, where foreclosure rates are tops in the nation - it's so sad that the abandoned animals are indeed an overlooked and often forgotten after-effect of these hard times.