Cat Rescuer Given 90 Days to Remove Her Cats

According to news reports, Kristy Grant of Pierson, Florida has almost 170 cats, and local officials have told her to get rid of them.

So far, this sounds like a typical cat hoarding case. But wait, there’s more.

First off, Pierson is a tiny rural community of about 2600 people in 7 square miles. And Ms. Grant lives not in a typical tiny house stuffed to the rafters with half-dead cats and their poop, but a clean place on 10 acres well outside of "town" proper. And she reputedly knows all her cats by name — as opposed to cat hoarders who are generally clueless as to even what’s going on in their house. And her neighbors aren’t complaining about the smell from the poop and dead cats, because there isn’t any (and aren’t any) — instead, they’re complaining that the cats are so healthy they’re killing too many squirrels and birds.

Not a Cat Hoarder

It turns out that Ms. Grant has rescued all her cats, and wants to turn her property into an animal sanctuary. She’s quoted by Local 6 News (where you can see a video if you use IE but not Firefox) as saying "I’m in the middle of nowhere. If I can’t take care of cats here, where can you?"

As is all too common, her local City Council has denied her requests and given her 90 days to remove all but the four that she is allowed to keep under zoning regulations. I’m not sure what it is about Florida — maybe the humidity — but it seems as though that state is crowded with local officials and homeowners associations that love to push people around and try to control their lives. Maybe the Pierson City Council ought to use some common sense in this situation before they give their town a bad reputation.
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How (NOT) To Poison Your Cat

Just as we had to childproof our home before our sons began to crawl, so we have had to catproof the parts of our home that our cats live in. Just use common sense. If you would not drink or eat something, be sure your cat can't either.

Of course, just as you would not give beer to a human baby, do not offer it to your cat, either (not that they'd take it anyway, since cats generally turn up their noses and run at the smell of alcohol).

All our cabinets with cleaning fluids and powders are locked or out of reach. If a cleaning agent can hurt a child, it can probably hurt a cat, too. The door to our garage is weighted so it cannot stay open by accident. Cats find spilled antifreeze attractive to drink. And drinking it will kill a cat.

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