“These are beautiful cats, and they need help finding homes.”

— Katherine Vos, Santa Cruz County Animal Services Authority

The Scotts Valley animal shelter is awash in cats after two men in separate incidents surrendered 47 cats and kittens.

All are healthy and available for adoption now, said Katherine Vos, director of the Santa Cruz County Animal Services Authority.

The animals, given to the shelter last week, are in addition to the 83 cats that animal officers confiscated from a trash-filled Ben Lomond house in July. Those cats are still in custody but not yet adoptable.

“These are beautiful cats,” Vos said, “and they need help finding homes.”

In one case, a man moving to the area with a rental truck from Vancouver, Wash., apparently unaware of the local cost of living, ended up homeless and took his 28 cats to the shelter.

Within an hour, a second man surrendered 19 more cats, saying he found them in and around a trailer on property he owns in Ben Lomond.

Every kennel in the Scotts Valley shelter is filled. Some of the cats went to the authority’s Watsonville shelter, and others are being boarded by the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals shelter in Santa Cruz.



“The SPCA is helping,” Vos said. “They always step up and help out in cases like this.”

Available pets can be viewed and adopted daily from 12:30 to 5:30 p.m. at 27 Janis Way.