WILDWOOD, Mo. (KTVI) — You wouldn’t know it from looking from the outside of a 5,700-square-foot home in Wildwood, Missouri — but it was recently a playground for nearly 175 cats.
FOX 2 showed pictures in September as family members fought to protect their elderly father, who lived in the home until a county health order to vacate. A new video taken by family reveals conditions worse than they first feared — a bathroom shared by the cats — with cat waste on the sink and piling up in the bathtub.
The homeowner’s daughter, Carolyn Haydon, said in September that another relative had moved in with the elderly parents and, bizarrely, kept all other family away for years.
“That particular person said that the home was her safe space, and she did not want us in her safe space,” Haydon said.
She added that police and social service agencies refused to intervene because someone would always answer the door and say they were OK. But the family finally got access after their mother died. The pictures and videos clearly show the conditions under which they were living were not OK.
The homeowner’s grandson, Jonathan Carter, described the smell of ammonia as so overwhelming in the home that it attaches to you.
“It’s mind-blowing,” he said. “Just the 15-20 minutes you’re in there, you’ve got to wash your clothes.”
In September, 140 cats were rescued and taken to the APA for adoption. Another 35 cats have been found, hiding since then. APA is continuing to appeal to the public for help finding homes.
Meanwhile, the family has asked the St. Louis County Courts to appoint a personal representative for their deceased mother’s estate. The family tells FOX 2 that someone has used her credit card, and it’s not their dad.
“Somebody has access, and we’re currently trying to get everything shut off,” Carter said.
A probate hearing Wednesday was the family’s attempt to protect their father, who is no longer in the home but feared to still be at risk.
That hearing was unexpectedly postponed just as soon as it began. Court hearings so far have led to the homeowner getting placed in assisted living and having guardian ad litem appointed to him.