HYOGO (TR) – A major house clearance in Amagasaki City took a morbid turn when workers unearthed the skeletonized remains of multiple cats buried beneath 16 tons of accumulated hoarding debris, reports Toyo Keizai (July 4)
The two-story, four-bedroom property, known to neighbors for decades as a notorious gomi-yashiki (garbage house), required a team of seven workers from Osaka-based clearance specialists EEVEE three full days to empty. The staggering haul equated to eight truckloads of refuse.
As workers navigated rooms packed to the ceilings with rotting cardboard, overflowing trash bags, and scattered belongings, they made a grim discovery among the filth: the skeletal remains of at least four stray cats.
“Final resting place”
Fuminao Futami, representative of EEVEE, noted that the boundaries between the indoors and outdoors had completely vanished over the years, allowing vermin and strays to roam freely through gaps in the decaying property. Rat and weasel damage was also prevalent throughout the home.
“They say cats seek out a hiding place when they are about to die,” Futami said. “They chose this house as their final resting place because, despite it being a human residence, it was completely hidden from human eyes.”
The clearance was ordered by the adult children of the homeowner, an octogenarian who was recently moved into an elderly care facility.
Hoarding tendencies
According to Futami, the home began its descent into squalor decades ago due to the mother’s hoarding tendencies. However, the situation escalated into a 20-year accumulation of extreme filth after she was moved to a care facility. The father, stripped of his life partner, completely lost the will to maintain his environment, leading to bitter and constant arguments with his children.
The psychological toll of growing up in a hoarder house left a lasting mark on the children, who are now in their late 40s. Throughout the grueling three-day extraction, they stood by in near silence, opting to salvage nothing but a few stamp albums and hobby items from the wreckage of their childhood home.
“Rather than sadness or loneliness, they just looked relieved,” Futami observed of the siblings. “This house had been a persistent problem for their family. It was as if a thorn had finally been pulled out.”
