‘Really, really bad’: 16 cats rescued from abandoned home in Alabama

GUNTERSVILLE, Ala. (WHNT) — A Guntersville cat rescue saved a large number of abandoned cats in late March.

Kitties In The City Rescue is a local foster-based rescue founded in 2023. Its mission is to help as many animals as possible.

According to the rescue, the cats were found locked inside a woman’s home. Originally, the organization thought she had moved to North Carolina. However, they discovered that she had only moved about 10 minutes away.

“When you pull up to the yard, you could smell it,” a spokesperson for Kitties In The City Rescue said. “I mean, it was really, really bad.”

The last time the neighbors saw the woman at the home was on March 6, according to the rescue. When they realized what was going on, they brought in litter boxes, food and water.

Eventually, the neighbors decided to reach out for help, which is when Kitties in the City Rescue came in.

”They had already cleaned four bags of feces that, I mean, you just wouldn’t believe it,” the spokesperson said.

The rescue made a trail inside the home where they could walk to try and find the cats. There were a total of 19 cats found inside the home. However, one of them was a dead adult, and two of them were dead kittens, leaving 16 full-grown cats.

”We raised the chair, and we found, like, five more. And then we found a dead one,” the spokesperson said. “We were out in the yard, burying and crying, and it was a pretty sad thing.”

The rescue filed a police report and are being subpoenaed as witnesses. They are working on getting justice for the cats.

Kitties In The City has partnered with other rescues out of Huntsville, such as Cattyshack and Friends of Rescue. Both of these organizations have taken in some of the cats, leaving the rescue with six.

The rescue took the remaining cats to the vet and had them spayed and neutered. Four of them are going to be taken to Petsense in Owens Cross Roads.