A Jefferson County woman is accused of hoarding as many as 60 cats inside her trailer home.Animal control officers, though, said it wasn't a typical case of cat hoarding."I never had any idea she had 50 or 60 cats," said Tracy Stewart, who lived just two doors down from the 58-year-old woman. "You'd expect there to be an odor with someone having that many. I never had any indications."
Last month, the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office responded to a call of a large number of animals in the home at 15150 S. Golden Road.Officers have since seized 33 of the animals and plan to go back this week to seize most of the rest."It just snowballed on her," said Mark Techmeyer, public information officer with the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office. "They weren't spayed or neutered. They started breeding, and her little family just kept growing. She loved her animals."So much so, neighbors said they often saw her bringing home cat food, but not food for herself.They said her water is shut off, but that she always took care of her cats.It's not unusual for animal control officers to come in contact with cat hoarders, but officers said this case was surprising."These cats were in pretty good shape," said Techmeyer. "The environment was in pretty good shape, which is not what you normally see in these hoarding situations. So this is a rare case."Also rare -- the cat owner has been cooperative with authorities, admitting things had gotten out of control and voluntarily giving up her pets to shelters across the area..." More & video
