This story takes the term “cat lady” to a whole new level.
At a high-rise apartment building in Toronto, Animal Services discovered a whopping 300 cats living in one two-bedroom apartment. The cats were packed into every conceivable part of the unit. They were on every surface, in every corner, and even in the bathtub.
The situation was so severe that several animal rescues in the area had to come help out.
“It was a very difficult place to spend any time,” said Belinda Vandersluis, executive director of Toronto Cat Rescue. “The smell was overwhelming and it was just an overwhelming place to be — besides the fact that there were 300 cats there.”
While there were some cat kennels in the space, there certainly wasn’t anywhere near enough room for 300 cats to live their lives in peace (ahem, cat pee).
Yet somehow, the cats were doing unexpectedly well there.
Photo Credit: Toronto Cat Rescue
“The cats are in surprisingly good shape both medically and behaviorally,” Belinda said. “They were quite calm, there wasn’t a mass panic of cats running everywhere, there were just a lot of cats, and they were surprisingly friendly.”
Some of them were a bit underweight, but for the most part, they were healthy.
“They’re playing, eating, they don’t have fleas or worms and they don’t have medical or dental issues,” Belinda said.
Photo Credit: Toronto Cat Rescue
Either way, though, keeping 300 cats in one apartment obviously isn’t sustainable, and the cats were slowly rescued from the space. It took a few days to get them all out, but they are now all safely in the care of rescues and foster homes.
From there, they’ll go on to find their forever homes.