CARO --Call her the Cat Lady of Caro.

Susan I. Jando, 64, has sheltered derelict felines at her home for 19 years. It began with just a few and then ... word spread.

"I get them from all around," Jando said. "Everybody calls me. Nobody ever shows up with anything but cats."

People bring cats from Midland, Saginaw and Flint. After a disease outbreak at the Humane Society of Tuscola County even that agency looked to unload extra cats on Jando.

She has partnered with others to help rescue cats, calling her group the "Cass River Pet Friendz."

She shelters 32 cats at her home. She had about 50 several months ago.

Tuscola County no longer offers animal control facilities. A budget shortfall forced the elimination of the department and voters rejected a tax increase to finance the project. Animal control has not operated since 2002. Voters will again confront the issue Tuesday when they vote on a reallocation of millages.

Mark A. Wachner of the Saginaw County Animal Care Center says that private animal rescue operations are helpful, but he advises rescuers to proceed with caution.

"Good rescues are a real benefit," he said, "but it can get overwhelming. Animals are not designed to live in a cage."

Pets can multiply quickly.

"Animals are so prolific. If they start gaining in numbers, it can get exponential ... Even our facility is mostly a short-term holding facility. When you start adding up the costs of caring for a large group of animals, it's usually too much for an individual to handle."

When a population surges out of control, living conditions deteriorate and the shelter is no longer a safe place for the animals.

"That's when we start getting into hoarding and collecting," Wachner said.

"Hoarding" or "collecting," and refers to people who compulsively acquire and keep animals whether or not they have the ability to care for them. Living conditions for both the person and animals begin to suffer.

Often, care is so insufficient that animals starve to death or become diseased.

The operation

Since Jando knows how quickly her pet population could spin out of control, she monitors the situation carefully.

She controls her cat population by housing only spayed or neutered cats. She maintains a sanitary environment for the cats.

She also regularly takes the animals to the veterinarian and tracks their health. She even varies her animal's diets by alternating between dry bagged cat food and moist canned food.

"I do whatever I can," she said. "I try to take in cats that have had all their shots. A lot of the time I end up taking them to the vet before I take them in. I just gave all the cats booster shots."

Jando has a waiting list to take cats into her shelter and says that taking care of the cats has become almost a full-time job.

"It all goes into the cats," she said. "I get them from all around."

On the day The Saginaw News visited Jando, she had plans to take in two more felines. During the interview, Jando received two additional phone calls inquiring about dropping off cats.

"I try not to take too many," she said. "The calls just keep coming."

No agency tracks private shelters, such as Jando's, but animal control officials estimate there are hundreds of them nationwide.

Jando's goal is to find permanent homes for the felines, but she says they usually come in faster than she can place them.

"One day I will get two or three calls placing cats, then it will go quiet for awhile," she said.

People have even taken to dropping off cats and driving away -- a common, if irresponsible, practice in the country. The animals linger in Jando's yard or make their way to the porch and scratch at the front door.

It's animals like these that cause the most problems because there is no way of knowing whether they are healthy, spayed or able to socialize, Jando said.

Jando keeps an index card file tracking the health and veterinary visits of each of her cats and names them.

In addition to the 10 cats that live in the house, Jando and her husband John, 73, have two dogs.

"I don't like to take dogs," she said. "They bark too much."

The Jando house is clean, but it is difficult to escape the presence of the pets.

Behind each corner a cat or a food dish pops out. The living room floor is linoleum, not carpet. Blankets drape over the cushions of the couch.

Within seconds of sitting down, a visitor becomes an object of curiosity for the animals. The cats rub against guests' legs and purr for recognition.

"They love attention," Jando said.

The "Cat House"

In the back yard, a structure of two-by-fours, plywood, chicken wire and tarps houses more felines. Inside, nearly two dozen cats play with throw pillows, old rugs and scratching posts.

Two kittens nurse from a mother cat.

"If someone came in here looking to adopt a cat, that's the one they'd choose," Jando said, pointing to a small, snow-white kitten. "When he grows up they'll bring him back and say their husband or their kids are allergic."

John Jando built the "cat house."

"It's nothing fancy, but it's shelter," he said. "Whenever we get the money, I add to it."

The facade features two large doors that open to let light and fresh air through chicken wire. When the weather gets cold or rainy, the Jandos close the doors to protect the cats from the elements.

"I fix it up like a house," Jando said. "In the summer we get fans going in here. We haven't got heat yet, but we're working on it."

Cats emerge from every nook and cranny, the air occasionally rent by hisses or a screech. They wander freely in the simple but spacious accommodations.

One room inside the Jando house is stacked with cages to house the cats when the weather gets cold.

"Just until we get some heat outside," Jando said, referring to the shelter.

A financial burden

Taking care of so many cats and maintaining a healthy environment for the animals has become a financial strain for the Jandos, but Susan Jando says she feels a calling to persevere.

"If I don't do it," Jando said. "Who will?"

Jando spends her entire monthly Social Security check on the cats, she said, and the financial demand created by the most basic care is difficult at times. She declined to share the exact monthly expenses.

She says that people often drop cats off promising they will return with supplies or donations to help pay for the cat's care.

"I don't see them again," she said.

Jando scours garage sales looking for old throw rugs, blankets and pillows. More than anything else, she wants people to adopt some of her cats.

"I enjoy doing this, but I'd like to place a few more," she said.

With word spreading by the day about the Caro Cat Lady difficulties are likely to continue.

"I'd like to keep things going for a few more years," Jando said. "I go through a big bag of cat food every week, plus canned food. I use even more litter than food. I don't know how people think I manage."

© 2003 Saginaw Newshttp://www.mlive.com/news/sanews/in...68000157260.xml