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    Siglinda Scarpa is certainly a cat lady, but it would be wrong to call her crazy. However, she is crazy in love with felines. According to the New York Times, the 71-year-old woman cares for 300 cats at her quaint home, which also serves as a no-kill animal shelter in the woods of North Carolina.

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    Over the years, Scarpa has transformed her adorable blue house into a sanctuary for art and animals. The Italian immigrant runs a small ceramic art shop from the first floor of her abode. Flowers, farm animals and birds can all be found roaming outside, but what every visitor notices first is the cats. 

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    Cats cover the estate from the inside out, keeping track of all bustling activity from their many perches on beds, fence posts, trees and table tops. If someone took the time to count, they would find roughly 300 felines on the property, all of them a part of Scarpa's animal shelter. 

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    Many know Scarpa's home as Goathouse Refuge, a cage-free, no-kill shelter sprawled over an acre of fenced land. While it caters to cats, the shelter is named for a goat that came with Scarpa's property, who now lives among the furry felines. 

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    Goathouse Refuge started accidentally. Originally, Scarpa's home was just a ceramics studio, but once the neighborhood heard of her love for cats, the kitties started coming in. The old woman found that she was routinely having cats dropped at her door by the police, other shelters and Hurricane Katrina rescue groups. 

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    Scarpa reacted like a true animal lover, fencing in her property, starting a non-profit group and finding volunteers to help her care for and adopt out the needy cats. Her work and dedication to the animals has many calling her the "Mother Theresa" of the woods. 

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    Dr. Bonnie Ammerman, a veterinarian who often makes house calls there, told the New York Times: “She goes above and beyond what a lot of people would do for her personal pets. Many of these cats are feral, so they are not adoptable, but Siglinda does everything she can to socialize them.”

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    Scarpa's love for cats started when she was only 7, living in WWII-era Italy. Her father brought her a kitten he'd found drowning and pressed the freezing animal against her. Scarpa, then just a little girl, embraced and calmed the kitten. From then on, her world was changed. She began to open up and speak out for animals, a path that eventually led her to Goathouse Refuge.

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    Locals are amazed by what she has accomplished. Not only does Scarpa take in as many animals as she can, but she remembers all of their names and personalities. The woman easily waddles from cat to cat, telling visitors each kitty's backstory, health issues and favorite hiding spots. And even with 300 cats roaming freely, Scarpa's home smells of fresh pine and oozes a welcoming coziness. 

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    Scarpa isn't just a cat lady; she cares for all sorts of animals. Her birdhouses are hung high enough in the trees so the cats can't injure the winged critters. Goats, bunnies, dogs and turkeys calmly weave their way through the troops of felines covering the grounds with no altercations. 

    “They all pretty much run around together happily,” Ammerman shared with the New York Times. “Siglinda provides a feeling of safekeeping.”

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    Of course, Scarpa worries what will happen after she's gone. The altruistic woman hopes that her actions and work will continue to live on through Goathouse Refuge after she passes, and that all the animal occupants will get the love and care they deserve. 

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    Scarpa is certain of one thing — when she does pass, she wants to be buried under the same oak tree as the animals on the property. To Scarpa, Goathouse Refuge is home and all the animals are her babies, so there is no where else she would rather be, even after death.