Please wipe your Feet or Litter Pan Madness

Please wipe your Feet or Litter Pan Madness?  After being chased and successfully escaping a angry mother swan in Redwood Shores, I was just catching my breath when I was flagged down by a passing Police Officer and asked to follow him to a nearby residence. The officer told me he was conducing a welfare check on the man that lived just a couple of blocks away and who hadn’t been to work over the last several days. The man a mechanic as also in possession of several thousand dollars of company tools which was also a concern, however; the officer noticed numerous cats in the window and many of them appeared sick. As we parked in front I noticed the outside of the house was clean and maintained with a well manicured front yawn, but the drapes where drawn and the window sills were black with dead flies raising my concerns?

I knocked on the front door with no answer so the Officer and I walked to the back of the residence where the ground seem to move with a sea of cats and flies. The smell was overwhelming but we moved to the patio area and looked into the kitchen through the sliding glass doors. The floor was covered in cat feces at least 3 inches thick with a foot path leading to the refrigerator and the sink and in each corner were litter pans overflowing with several inches of cat feces. As I stood there I remembered receiving complaints from neighbors complaining about trespassing stray cats defecating in their yards and a strong odor in the area that no one could pinpoint at the time. Well, time was up and I found it? As the Officer and I went back to the front door and attempted to make contact, this time someone answered.

Standing there in his underwear stood a man about 40, the smell emitting from the house began to burn my eye’s so I backed up just to recover. Obtaining the man’s identification we explained why we were there and I asked the man how many cats were inside the house. He stopped for a second picked up a bottle of gin took and belt and said, “O”, about 25 or so give or take”. The man told me both he and his wife are renters and lived at the house for the last year and a half, he also mentioned at that time he only had 4 cats but things just kind of snowballed since then? Looking down at his feet I noticed he wasn’t at all careful on where he stepped with cakes of cats feces oozing between his toes? Oblivious to his surroundings he brought out a large bag with medication for the cats after I noticed some where suffering with upper respiratory  infections. The Officer notified the home owners who resided across the bay in Fremont and after updating them of the situation they were on there way.

I requested additional officers from our agency and had our dispatcher contact the Health Dept. along with Adult Protection Services for good measure. It wasn’t long before a crowd of city officials and the homeowners from Fremont all stood together in front of the house. The man now dressed? peered out from under the curtains as the homeowners wife knocked on the front door. Slowly the door opened but when that smell hit her nostrils she gagged and fell back into the arms of her gagging husband? This started a chain reaction of gagging which included the Health Dept. Officer who ran to his car and quickly put on a mask.  The man and his wife where immediately evicted on the spot after the owners husband walked through the house wearing a breathing device similar to what our Firefighters wear when dealing with hazardous materials or smoke filled rooms.

The man agreed to surrender 20 of his cats and was given 24 hours to vacate the premises and his wife who was working at the time but notified pulled up with a large U-Haul truck and together they started to pack. The homeowners wife took a swing at the wife and yelled at her something like, “ don’t bother to do the dishes”? The house was deemed a hazard unfit for human occupation and condemned by the Health Dept. I issued the man still barefoot and proud of it? citations for improper care and attention as well as additional violations. I also submitted a report to the District Attorney’s Office for prosecution regarding animal health and safety code violations. The man and his wife mentioned they would be gone by morning probably headed to Oregon as fast as they could and the wife commented, “that’s were good people and animal lovers are welcomed” ? The next day they were gone, however; some two weeks later I was requested to meet with the manager of U-Haul Rentals located in Belmont.

He mentioned his truck was discovered abandoned on 4th Ave. in San Mateo and he was shocked by what he found. Inside the truck lay several body parts and bare bones of cats that were eaten alive by five remaining survivors. I immediately impound the surviving animals and transported them to our shelter for medical attention and notified the forwarded a update report to the District Attorney’s Office regarding this latest information. I remembered the man mentioning the city in Oregon he was headed to so I notified their Sheriffs Dept. as well as the local Humane Society in that area, it was a long shot but you never know where a pair of rats might resurface. Months later I received a call from the Sheriff’s Dept. in Oregon and the Deputy told me, “we got your guy attempting to adopt a cat from a local animal shelter” .  The deputy continued, “both he and his wife are in custody and we are in the process of transporting them to our county jail, is the anything you’d like me to tell them” ?  Now I didn’t have to think very long for this one so I told the Deputy to tell them for me, “ don’t forget to wipe your feet before entering the your cell