Camper Cats

We once had 29 cats living here at the Boggy Thicket. 

We didn’t want 29 cats – I would have been (and currently am) perfectly happy with none. 

It all started when our daughter Cheryl brought in a stray kitten that “followed her home” when she drove home from the convenience store about five miles south of here.  The cat proved to be very prolific – popping out kittens much faster than we could give them away.  We soon found ourselves overwhelmed with her kittens and their kittens, and so on.  With the exception of the mother cat,  they were all too fast and too wild to catch.

Our Those 29 cats lived outside on six acres.  I can’t imagine living with 74 in a small truck camper, but a guy named Jerry Reynolds has been doing just that!

Here’s the story from Seattle’s KING 5 News:

AUBURN, Wash. -- The man who had 74 cats and one dog crammed in his camper will likely be charged with second degree animal cruelty.

Jerry Reynolds, who is originally from Oregon, has been living in his truck for the last five weeks while he visits his girlfriend at Auburn Regional Medical Center.

Thursday evening, someone reported seeing multiple cats in the windows of the camper outside the medical center.

King County Animal Control responded and found the camper to be unsafe for the animals.

Reynolds helped animal control officers remove the cats from the camper as veterinarians examined them. He said the  name of almost every cat as he handed them to authorities.

Reynolds said he had no other choice but to take the cats with him in the camper, instead of leaving them to fend for themselves.

"It was better than letting them go," he said.