D.C. Woman's House Overrun By Too Many Cats

“The conditions were pretty filthy inside the house,” said Washington Humane Society law enforcement officer Jennifer Gardner. “With that many cats, there’s obviously not a whole lot of litter boxes being used, so they were going to the bathroom all over the house.”

 

After a tip, Humane Society officers raided the house June 9 and found 55 cats living in every nook and cranny of the home, including one in a broken oven and another peering down from the ceiling.

 

“They were getting into fights with each other, so a lot of them had injuries,” said Gardner. “And then also with having a large number of cats, disease is just really rampant.”

All but one of the cats were pulled and saved from the house, but because of injuries and diseases only 11 currently are alive.

 

As news spreads of this cat house, many neighbors are surprised.

 

“I’ve known her for a while. I know she always fed the cats in the neighborhood, so I just figured maybe five or six cats were hers,” said neighbor Gary Turner.

 

The woman was not home when we knocked on the door, but News4 did get a chance to speak with her roommate. He told us that this whole ordeal started about 10 years ago when the woman first found a cat on the street, brought it inside and then found out the cat was pregnant. The cats continued to breed with others brought in from the street, and soon there was a problem.

 

The Washington Humane Society is now working with the woman to make sure this doesn’t happen again. They’re also hoping the cats can bounce back.

 

“We hope they’ll be able to be adopted once they do go through their holding period and we check to make sure they’re medically sound to go into the new homes, and hopefully they’ll adjust like any other cat,” Gardner said.

 

June is adopt a cat month at the Washington Humane Society. All cats older than 1 are free to adopt.