Residents worry about cats left inside home

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    CAPE CORAL, Florida (WBBH) — Neighbors became concerned after a half dozen cats were left inside of a Cape Coral home after the owner stopped coming home.

The neighbors said that the cats are no longer at the home.

What is sticking around though, they say, is the smell and their concern for where the cats are now.

Complaints against the owner of the home date back to last August.

More recently, neighbors called Lee County Domestic Animal Services after not seeing the woman who lived there for weeks.

David Brooks was cutting his hedges when he noticed something strange.

“I saw movement in the window and I walked up and there were cats there,” he said.

The electricity at the home is disconnected.

“There’s zero ventilation. There’s no AC in the house,” said Kyle Lhommediue, a neighbor.

As temperatures started to rise, the concern from neighbors did as well.

“I called animal control to see what was going on,” said Brooks.

Lee County Domestic Animal Services records show officers visited the North East 28th Street home at least 24 times since August 2020.

Pictures in the reports show cats inside.

On January 7, the locked back room where the cats were kept measured 77 degrees inside.

Neighbors even captured video of a cat with its clar stuck in duct tape near the window.

“The house is filled with urine and feces from the cats in the room that they were locked in,” said Lhommedieu.

According to Domestic Animal Services reports, the cats were never in distress, with water and food visible in the house.

“Lee County Domestic Animal Services wants the animals out of the house, they wanted access to the house,” said Lhommedieu. “Cape PD would not grant them access to the house.”

The Cape Coral Police Department said that they will not enter a home if a crime is not being committed. They saw cats throughout the home, but they did not appear in danger.

That has neighbors upset.

“What’s the point of even calling them,” said Lhommedieu. “If there was a person inside we would get them out.”

On Friday, neighbors said the homeowner’s son let officers inside the home.

That evening, all the cats were gone.

“I hope that cats somehow got to a shelter or a rescue and just weren’t dumped in the woods,” said Lhommedieu.

While he’s hopeful the cat’s are in a better place, Lhommedieu said there’s one day he’s really looking forward to.

“Bulldozer day. Bulldozer day, the whole house is gone,” he said.

Calls to the property owner asking where the cats are and why she had them locked up were not immediately returned.

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