Monday, January 07, 2008

Woman thought she was a 747 pilot

The Cape of Good Hope SPCA has started trapping abandoned cats at the home of a woman who has been admitted to hospital for psychiatric observation with suspected Diogenes syndrome, or senile squalor syndrome.

The condition is characterised by extreme self-neglect, domestic squalor and compulsive hoarding of all sorts of items including refuse and animals.

Allan Perrins, chief executive officer of the Cape of Good Hope Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, said they were alerted by a neighbour who had noticed the 55-year-old woman acting strangely on a number of occasions.

"She would strip naked in public and also imagined herself to be the pilot of a Boeing 747."

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