Take a Peek Inside The House of a Woman Living With no Less Than 1,000 Cats
Take a peek inside her house (Video)
You’re about to meet an amazing woman who gave up her spacious home, complete with a pool and a view, just to care for her beloved cats. Lynea Lattanzio, 68, now lives in a small mobile home so she can better care for more than 1,000 felines. She spent her retirement money, sold her car and even sold her wedding ring — all for the love of the cats. She also gave up her five-bedroom home and moved into a trailer on her six-acre property for approximately 1,100 cats. But don’t mistake this for a pesky feline infestation: Lattanzio runs Cat House On The Kings in Parlier, California, the state’s largest no-cage, no-kill cat sanctuary.
How did Lattanzio end up with the dream job of looking after roughly 800 adult cats and 300 kittens? It started in 1992, when Lattanzio went to a shelter to replace two cats of her father’s who had passed away. She ended up bringing back 15 kittens instead. She went on to rescue and re-home 96 cats that year, she told in an interview this week, and has been the champion of purring friends ever since. She runs the sanctuary with a staff of 45 (plus volunteers) who start their days at 4 a.m., feeding all of Lattanzio’s permanent guests. The sanctuary also has a hospital and ICU, and designated areas for seniors, kittens and the critically ill. Lattanzio is a surgical veterinary technician herself.
Self-proclaimed “ultimate crazy cat lady”
Lattanzio’s goal isn’t to keep all the cats for herself (though we wouldn’t blame her if she did). The sanctuary is also an adoption center — where many, many cats (and a few dogs) are in need of forever homes. According to the sanctuary’s website, over 24,000 cats have been saved. Another 40,000 cats and dogs have been spayed and neutered. “I like cats because they are independent, they are beautiful, they are just graceful, and I enjoy watching them,” said Lattanzio. “I have taken in and lived with 28,000 cats. That’s probably a record.” Watch the video, you can take the lady out of the shelter but you can’t take the shelter out of the lady.
