Cats and trash litter Kensington rowhouse
No amount of kitty litter could mask the unholy aroma that greeted Pennsylvania SPCA workers as they squeezed into a Kensington rowhouse yesterday.
No amount of kitty litter could mask the unholy aroma that greeted Pennsylvania SPCA workers as they squeezed into a Kensington rowhouse yesterday.
Philadelphia police and members of the PSPCA were called to a small, two-story corner house on Braddock Street near Clearfield about 3:30 p.m. by a woman who said her daughter was living inside the property with 30 cats, said PSCPA Officer Wayne Smith.
The woman wanted to have her 64-year-old daughter committed because she was having "some mental issues," Smith said. Neither woman was identified.
The cops and PSPCA workers were ready for the small army of felines and accompanying cat poop, but nothing prepared them for the other surprise lurking inside the rowhouse: mounds and mounds of rotting trash, stacked from floor to ceiling in almost every room.
"If you stood on top of the trash, your feet were at the chandelier," Smith said. "It was so bad, the cats had actually made tunnels through the trash."
PSCPA workers were able to get only about 15 cats - who all were well-fed - out of the house yesterday. A small pile of garbage was still in front of the house last night.
Smith said workers planned to return today with members of the Department of Licenses and Inspections to clear out more debris and cats who were still hiding out.
"It was impossible to manuever in there," he said. "She had stockpiles of trash and other things she collected, like plumbing supplies and PVC pipe." *
