Keeping Mom's Legacy Alive: Save Carol's Cats

Update to this tragic story, again:

Sadly, my mother passed away on January 10th. She left behind a sizeable number of cats. She had taken good care of the, vetted them, fed them very well, you name it. She looked at herself as their live in caretaker. More or less like it was their home and she just had the privilege of being there to care for them. We had all talked to her at one point or another about having too many but she was stubborn and took forever to finally see we where right.

My mother had a pretty good amount of money in some investment accounts, but she donated it to charities, animal shelters, etc. Didn't leave anything to care for the cats she had taken in herself. When she first passed it was all about the emotion of save them, keep them together, do whatever it takes to keep them where they or move them all together. Had to honor mom's legacy, do something to always remember her.

The reality of it is that isn't practical. They all deserve to live, but they can hold onto that legacy just fine making others happy. Now I thought the tragedy of this whole story was my mother passing away. As tragic as that is, it doesn't compare to the absolutely hateful attitude my sister has taken since being appointed executor of her estate. Once we all realized there was nothing coming from investments accounts to take care of all this it quickly turned to blame. She blames me for her donating the money, and for my mother constantly taking in new cats, and and and and.....

We all want the same thing, re-home the cats as quickly as possible and clean up the house so it can be sold to pay the growing debt to the estate. What she has been doing has only been compounding the problem though. While trying to put out fires she starts to get revenge we can't even begin to help remove them from the home. She refuses to go the house and care for them so myself and the kids have had to, she refuses to pay to feed them until they can be moved, and now she has changed the locks on the home to prevent us from doing anything at all. This was also after deactivating all our phones before I could move the family plan we shared for the better part of 2 decades into my name.

Unfortunately none of this is truly about doing what is best anymore, it's all about revenge. We have been trying to contact help to get the cats re-homed, we have been in touch with our city to let them know we have a plan so they don't have to waste time on it. We have been trying to clean the home as we where there between our regular jobs, and the feedings, and trying to contact help, and getting new phone accounts, the list goes on. My sister has been a bigger hinderance than a help and we need to retain an attorney to get her away from this so it can actually be fixed and fixed soon. She is in some cases quite literally screaming to anyone who will listen, including media outlets now, that the world is against her on this. She keeps pushing away family and groups trying to reach the same goal. Just not at her speed and not without trying to hurt us first.

Foremost this will be to retain an attorney. If we are successful in suing, then the rest will be used for care of the cats while we look for long term homes, and for getting the home ready to sell.

I know this family will be forever broken by this mess and getting things sorted soon will go a long way towards separating and healing on our own.