AURORA | With as many as 80 cats at her northeast Aurora home — all of them licensed, all of them up-to-date on their shots — Karen Schultz has proudly worn the title of “Aurora’s Cat Lady” for two decades.
“And I’ll toot my own horn, I was a model citizen,” Schultz said.
But after several almost impossibly tough years — which saw her husband of 30 years die suddenly, several surgeries with lengthy hospital stays and a bankruptcy mixed in — Schultz is without a cat in her home for the first time since she was a child.
Last month, Aurora animal care officials seized 46 cats from Schultz’s home after they say the animals were living in filthy conditions and many had developed respiratory illnesses and mites. Schultz, who had been hospitalized for several months, said she had hired a housekeeper to take care of her cats, but the housekeeper couldn’t handle the workload and the home fell into
disrepair.
“It wasn’t that I didn’t want to take care of my cats, I was in the hospital,” she said.
Now, Schultz hopes to get five of the cats back, the limit allowed under city law, but she is in an ongoing feud with the Westminster cat shelter where the cats were taken last month.
Juliet Piccone, Schultz’s lawyer, said that she and Schultz worked out an agreement with the city and Almost Home Adoptions under which the adoption home would take all of the cats, but return five to Schultz when her home had been cleaned.
But now, Piccone said, Almost Home Adoptions is refusing to return the cats.
For their part, Almost Home Adoptions said on their website that the cats were in serious medical distress and that their conditions developed over several years of neglect. Almost Home Adoptions did not return repeated calls for comment.
Schultz said that’s not true. The animals have some medical trouble, Schultz said, but none of the conditions were serious and the cats had simply fallen behind on their regular medical care.
Schultz has been a fixture in Aurora for years, hosting an open house every summer at her prize-winning day lily garden. The proceeds from sales of potted day lilies went to help area cat shelters. Last year marked the first time in two decades that Schultz didn’t host the open house because the garden was in too rough of shape.
It was a heavy workload even in the good times, with Schultz and her husband, Glenn, tending to the massive garden, caring for as many as 80 cats and still working full-time jobs. But the couple managed well, Schultz said. Then, in fall 2010, Glenn died suddenly.
Schultz said that losing Glenn was the first of what proved to be several consecutive blows that left her in the sorry predicament she is in now.
Last year, with medical bills mounting and money tough to come by, Schultz said she opted to not to get her cats licensed. The fees for licensing her cats ran about $600 a year, she said, and she couldn’t afford it.
“That was my fault,” she said. “I intended to make it good when I got some money in hand, but I never was able to.”
Schultz said that last month, while she was in a rehabilitation center recovering from a broken leg, animal care officials dropped by her home to check on her. They saw the cats living in pretty rough conditions and later seized all 46 cats that Schultz had.
“They came in and they took my whole family, every last one of them,” she said.
The scenario — almost four dozen cats having taken over a house — sounds bad. And she readily admits the house wasn’t a good place for the cats.
“It is dirty, and I am ashamed of it,” she said.
Some of the cats had dental problems, too, that require extensive care. Schultz said she knew about the dental troubles and had every intention of taking care of them once she had the cash.
“It makes me feel terrible,” she said. “The cats and I were the victims of some very
unfortunate circumstances.”
Still, Schultz is adamant that she isn’t a hoarder, or a collector. That’s why her colony of cats was never a secret to city or state officials. She had a cat fancier license with the city, and another license with the state that allowed her to own so many.
Schultz said that state license meant regular surprise inspections over the years, all of which she passed.
And, she said, she was scaling back on how many cats she had. A few years ago she opted to stop taking cats in and let the colony’s numbers drop naturally. That’s why she had just 46, down from the high 70s a few years ago.
“Hoarders do not downsize,” she said.
Pam Alford, who was the director of the Aurora Animal Shelter from 1987 until she retired last year, worked regularly with Schultz over the years and saw plenty of hoarders, too. For her, Schultz was never a hoarder.
“Eccentric? Have a lot of cats? Yes,” she said. “But living like a hoarder? No, she wasn’t doing that.”
Alford said Schultz always wanted to set an example of how owning a large population of cats could be done right. That’s why she always licensed the animals, groomed them, bathed them and had professional photographers over to take their pictures.
“They were always humanely cared for, and actually even beyond that,” she said.
While things clearly went south for Schultz in recent years, Alford said she hopes she gets the five cats back.
“She has obviously a very tender heart for those cats,” she said. “It’s her weakest spot on her whole body.”
Who can say “only 46 cats” with a straight face? If these cats were well taken care of, why were their intake overall health scores so very low at admission to the Aurora Shelter? The truth is soon to come out …
Sylvia, because the shelter was going to kill them all within the week. The truth is they are still alive because they were freed from the death house… I mean shelter.
Over 30 cats dying in just a few years. That’s over 40% of them. Wow. Long and painful deaths probably without vet care. Very sad.
To answer your question, when you have many cats that are near the same age, chances ae good that they will die pretty close together. Some cats live very long lives. Others die quite prematurely. The vast majority wtll live from 8 – 15 years. Mycats never suffered long, painful deaths. They were euthanized when it became clear that they would not recover. A few have suffered sudden cardiac events and just fell over dead after having been asymptomatic.
As a resident of Aurora for over 50 years we enjoyed seeing the Schulz home every summer because of her flowers. It wasn’t until she and her husband opened their gardens to the public for tours did we also learn about her love of cats. We would see the cats around, very friendly, healthy and loved. I don’t see the difference between what Mrs. Schultz was doing by providing a loving home and most rescues. As the article states animal control was supporting her. Sadly she had some health issues, her husband passed and it sounds like she trusted the wrong person. This doesn’t make her a monster, it makes her human.
Thank you for the kind words Connie.
Thanks to Almost Home, the kitties are recovering and will find their forever homes.
I am pleased that Almost Home volunteered to take my surrendered cats. I know they will get good care. My only issue is that they refuse to return the cats that still belong to me. No matter how they feel about me, they do not have a right to do that. It’s wrong.
no one should be allowed to have 80 cats in their residence. No one.
There are many people who feel the way you do and others who don’t. It will probably always be controversial. You are most certainly entitled to that opinion.
I received a very interesting letter about Sylvia Minneman in the mail today… she is the one who used Karen Schultz’s copy righted photographs without permission. More will likely come out about her agenda in the future.
I have absolutely no agenda.
I continue to be amazed at your lack of professionalism, as illustrated by this snippy 8th-grade-level slur you posted against me.
You have been and are currently posting Almost Home’s photos without permission. Ironic since you harp on about Almost Home using photos YOU put on their Facebook page. So the rules of your game don’t apply to you?
Perhaps so called “Concerned Cat Lover” would have preferred the short lifespan of two years and lives of fear, abuse and hunger Karen’s cats avoided due to her and her husband’s efforts. This women is a pioneer in the cat rescue community and future shelters should be named for her.
Almost Home should be commended for their initial efforts along with Attorney Juliet Piccone for saving these animals. It is important to note that Piccone works pro bono on these cases and Almost Home survives on donations. Why Almost Home is refusing to live up to the terms of the agreement and disparaging the Aurora Cat Lady who is trying to make a full physical recovery is a mystery.
Please release her 5 best friends to another shelter where she may visit them and concentrate your efforts on your positive mission of helping cats and cat loving people.
My heartfelt thanks to you for telling it like it is and not being hateful to either side. I don’t think I have made any false statements about Almost Home but I do feel betrayed by them.
I want to thank Brandon and the Aurora Sentinel For a truthful and unbiased article. I have been truthful about this whole matter, even when it didn’t portray me in a good light. There was a series of very unfortunate circumstances that brought this about. I am not saying that bad luck excuses me.They were my cats and the responsibility is ultimately mine. None of you need to beat me up as I have already beaten myself up many times over.There is an item that I want to clarify.None of this is the fault of the person that looked after the cats in my absence. I couldn”t afford a full time caretaker.& housekeeper. I tried to spend the money that was available on things that would benefit the cats and my employee did what she was paid to do. She came twice a day and scooped their litterboxes, fed them, changed their water, cleaned up any messes that they made since her last visit, and mopped floors.
The fact that the cat rescue which took these cats in is calling her a hoarder (which could certainly be the case) shows just how poor the leadership there must be. Taking care of the cats is paramount, of course, but being spiteful toward a woman who may have a mental condition is disappointing and sad. Everyone in this case needs to take a good look at how they treat fellow humans, and the ones with the capability to take the higher ground need to do so.