Abandoned cats found in South Side apartment

Last April, 28 cats were taken from the apartment.

By PATRICIA MEADE

VINDICATOR CRIME REPORTER

YOUNGSTOWN — “Don’t mind the smell.”

Helen Zbell tossed the warning over her shoulder as she climbed unsafe steps to the vacant apartment above hers at 1934 E. Midlothian Boulevard on Thursday. As she pushed open the unsecured door, she issued the smell warning again.

The 72-year-old strawberry blonde didn’t exaggerate. The place is pungent.

The noise of the door opening brought forth several inquisitive and friendly cats. More cats were in the kitchen, near the food and water, while still more lounged over a bedroom heating grate.

In a cupboard under the kitchen sink a mother cat nursing four kittens stirred when Zbell bent down to check on them.

In all, the small, stinky apartment is home to 10 felines, no humans. Another cat stays outside. There’s a food dish on the front porch for him.

“They’re pretty, aren’t they? They’re all healthy, too, because I’ve been feeding them and I keep the gas on so they’re warm,” Zbell said as she opened a kitchen drawer to see if a cat was hiding inside.

The mother and daughter who lived in the apartment left the cats when they moved out several weeks ago, Zbell said. “It’s a disgrace. Those women ought to be put in jail,” she added.

John Hall, Animal Charity humane agent, said Thursday that he contacted the daughter by cell phone and gave her one week to make arrangements for the animals. He has no idea where the mother went.

“Last April, I took 28 cats out of that apartment, and Linda Davis, one of our rehabilitators, had her picture in The Vindicator with some of the kittens,” Hall said. “They had up to 50 cats at one time in the apartment — typical hoarding in horrible conditions.”

Hall said his agency will do what it can if the owners don’t come forward.

Zbell, who called Animal Charity, said she’ll also contact Diane Less Baird at Angels for Animals. Baird said Thursday that the cats must be spayed or neutered, and if arrangements can’t be made for foster care until adoption, they would have to be euthanized.

“The landlord tells me I’m crazy for feeding them and buying litter,” Zbell said. “I took one of the cats, a true calico, and had her spayed and got her shots. Now I have three cats.”

Zbell said the women who lived above her, who couldn’t afford pet food, had been feeding the cats peas and cans of beans. “I said: ‘What?’ So I started buying them cat food.”

She said it’s just awful how some people take care of their pets. “This just makes me so mad — I had to get it out in the public,” Zbell said.

meade@vindy.com