Cat Lady Loses 9 of 80 Cats

Oct 15th 2009

At least nine cats died this week after a Daytona Beach woman's house caught on fire. But even crazier -- 71 seem to have lived.

Rhonda Spivey's home was the victim of a freak fire that sparked after ants built a colony near an electrical outlet on her living room wall. When the fire department came to her rescue, they found dozens of other animals living there.

"They had cats that were outside cats and inside cats," Lt. Fred Godowa of the Volusia County Fire Department told Paw Nation. "I've seen cases where people had quite a few cats, but not that many; that was quite unusual." Spivey had about 80 cats.

Spivey told ClickOrlando.com that she never intended to amass so many animals, but that people constantly gave her cats to pet-sit and then abandoned the animals.

"We physically pulled out 36 cats," Godowa continued. Of that number, nine did not live, while the 40-plus other cats either remained outside of Spivey's home or ran away.

While the Spiveys will lose about $50,000 in damage because of the fire, there is one bright spot.

"There are [animal] codes, and the Code Enforcement was going to fine her," Godowa told us. "But she already had a fire and the loss of her home. The last thing she needed was a $3,800 fine, so the city waved it."

Of the 36 rescued cats, eleven went to a nearby Humane Society while another seven were taken to an animal rescue.