LYNEA LATTANZIO: I’m gonna say that I'm
at the top of the list of the eccentric crazy cat ladies!
LYNEA LATTANZIO: I like cats because
they're independent, they're beautiful, they are just graceful, and I enjoy watching them.
I have taken in and lived with 28,000 cats. That’s probably a record!
COMM: The Cat House on the Kings is California’s
largest no-cage sanctuary for feral and abandoned cats. Founded by Lynea Lattanzio in her home,
the sanctuary currently houses around 800 adult cats and 300 kittens, and the sheer
numbers have forced Lynea to move out of the main house.
LYNEA LATTANZIO: This is my boy. There wasn’t
room for me anymore. I ended up with 60-something cats in my bedroom, with dogs, and I just
said that’s it, and I moved out. We had a rental on the property, and I moved to that
rental. I went from a 4,200-square-foot 5-bedroom home with a pool, and a wet bar and a view
of the river to a 1,600-1,800 sq foot mobile home with a view of a rusty metal shed. I’ve
come up in the world. This is my cat free zone. Ha! Ha!
COMM: In 1992, Lynea’s father had asked
her to help him find some new cats. She went to an animal shelter and bought home 15 kittens.
By the end of the year she’d rescued and re-homed 96 cats. It was then that she realised
she’d found her calling.
LYNEA LATTANZIO: When I first started this
endeavour, I was out of my own pocket for seven years. I spent my retirement, I sold
my car, I sold my wedding ring.
LYNEA LATTANZIO: He is so fat.
COMM: In 1993, she became a veterinary technician
to help keep the animals’ medical costs down, and the number of cats continue to grow.
The sanctuary is now so big that Lynea has staff and a team of volunteers to help run it.
LYNEA LATTANZIO: Currently for food, litter,
maintenance, staffing, vet, medical, we are at 1.6 million US dollars a year.
TERESA ANGEL: We come in about 4 o’clock
in the morning and you know, we start by feeding. It usually takes us, like maybe like thirty
minutes to an hour to feed everyone.
FRANK LAVERS: When I first started here, I wasn’t
really a cat person but after that you know, you work with them five days a week, you get
attached to them. Everybody has different characteristics, and you get to know them,
and they get to know you. They kind of wait for you when you walk in the gate. It’s
pretty cool, man.
LYNEA LATTANZIO: This is our ICU. We have
a hospital, an ICU, a kitten quarantine, a senior quarantine, but that is where our
critically ill cats stay. We have a vet that comes once a week to check our animals. We
take animals into him every day for check. And we have seven vet techs on staff.
COMM: When a generous donor left Lynea her
estate in 2004, the profits from the sale allowed her to buy the neighbouring land and
expand the grounds to twelve acres and install cat-proof fencing round the perimeter, meaning
all the cats could roam freely.
LYNEA LATTANZIO: See, under the trees, all
those are cats over there. There is one on the straw. There is, that’s their feeding
station, and their bedding, and their heater back there but, see there is a cat over there.
COMM: As much as Lynea loves the cats, her
aim is to find them new homes; not to keep them for herself.
LYNEA LATTANZIO: If you are interested in
adopting, you would go to our website and fill out the adoption form. There is five
hundred up for adoption that are friendly and ready to go.
LYNEA LATTANZIO: (sneezes) I must be alergic to cats.
Bless you.
LYNEA LATTANZIO: Thank you.