An eviction case has many local officials concerned about what will happen to a cat sanctuary kept on a Dowell woman's property after she is removed from the home.
Jean Michaud has been fighting to stay in her home for more than a year now, battling what she calls an illegal foreclosure case that she says came about as a result of banks signing forged documents, filing for bankruptcy to issue a stay of eviction and now bringing a federal civil lawsuit against the banks.
On Monday, yet another eviction attempt was scheduled, but another bankruptcy filing put an end to it. However, Calvert County Sheriff Mike Evans maintains the eviction will eventually occur, and that leaves the sheriff's office and its animal control unit in a serious predicament.
Michaud said she believes she has about 200 cats now in her privately-owned 501(c)(3) nonprofit sanctuary, living both indoors and outdoors on her waterfront property. She started the sanctuary 14 years ago when she moved in but has been caring for abandoned cats for 40 years, she said, taking in cats that are abused, blind or crippled, spaying and neutering them and ear-tipping them.
She takes them in, she said, because the area cat rescue groups “are overcome with cats here in Calvert and St. Mary's counties.” She has spent thousands of dollars of her own money caring for the cats, she said. In one case, she said, she nursed a cat with a maggot infestation back to health and he lived 15 years.
But when she is evicted, her fear is what will happen to those animals. “My cat sanctuary will be nullified and these cats will be euthanized,” she said. “They come to my house half-starved and half-dead, and I take them in. These cats should not be threatened. I should not be threatened.”
Evans said the sheriff's office is looking into it further, but no one wants to see the cats killed. “The cats will be taken to the animal shelter, where they will have a chance at adoption,” he said.
But 200 is a lot of cats to bring to a government-run shelter with limited space, especially during what the Tri-County Animal Shelter in Hughesville calls its busiest time of the year. Shelter Supervisor Kim Stephens said what happens to the animals that Calvert animal control officials bring to the shelter will depend on a couple of factors.
“If we get a large influx of animals, we do have protocols in place for emergency management sheltering, but it depends on why the cats are coming to us and how adoptable they are,” Stephens said.
Lt. Steve Jones, commander of the Calvert Investigative Team, said the office will try to work with other rescue groups like Friends of Felines, which has a cat sanctuary in Prince Frederick, to see how much additional help can be given in finding the cats homes and preventing euthanasia. Jones added that he wasn't exactly sure how many cats there are because of the setup at the property.
“I don't know how anyone could tell you how many there are, they're everywhere,” he said. “... But if we can find a group that wants to take these cats, we'll certainly turn them over to them.”
“I really don't know of anybody [else] having just a cat sanctuary, like a private one on their personal property,” Calvert County Animal Control Supervisor Craig Dichter said. In his nine years with the county he said he has yet to come across an eviction situation with this many animals involved and isn't even sure how long it will take to collect and transport every cat. “Due to the large amount of cats she has, there's no way she's going to be able to move them when she's evicted.”
Animal control officers are normally called in to pick up animals that have been left behind during an eviction, Dichter said, and arrangements are made at the tri-county shelter for them. In some cases, the homeowners return to pick them up.
“There are evictions all the time. Luckily, we haven't been called out very often, so people are bringing their animals with them, which is good,” he said.
mrussell@somdnews.com
