For more than two weeks, two Costa Mesa women have been trying to lure stray cats holed up in a house set for demolition into cages set up with food.
With seven secured by the weekend, TJ Kelley and Megan Robison, who both have experience rescuing cats, said there were at least eight more on the West 20th Street property in Costa Mesa.
Originally, when the women first started going to the house on Aug. 26, they estimated there were at least 24 cats around the property, many of which sat on the roof, came out from the foundation and hid around stacks of tires. Since that time, another seven cats were removed from the area by other animal advocates, they said.
The women say they are worried because the house, which was sold last month, is set to be demolished by its new owner. A permit for the demolition was requested last month and the city is expected to do an inspection of the property on Wednesday. Costa Mesa officials have said no demolition permit has been granted yet.
Kelley and Robison said they were prompted into action by a post on the Nextdoor app asking: “Anybody know what happened to all those cats and kittens that were in the abandoned house on W. 20th?”
Erwin Tipton, one of seven children who grew up in the home, said his family had three cats while living there, but they fed other strays in the neighborhood.
“Every time we fed our cats outside, next thing we knew, all these other cats would show up,” he said. “There were so many cats, it was like a watering hole.”
Tipton said he and his siblings spent $30 a week feeding the stray cats. When his parents passed away, he said, he and his siblings were in the process of cleaning up their house and property, but ended up selling.
The cat rescuers want to trap any remaining cats and get all of them neutered or spayed – a GoFundMe has already raised $3,500 to help with the cost. Several pregnant mothers have already been rescued, but more kittens, the women say they fear, remain in…
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