("Habanera" by Georges Bizet) and I'm obsessed with
other people's obsessions. - My name is Lynea and
I am obsessed with cats. I only had four cats
when I moved out here. Currently we have about 700
adults and about 300 kittens.
I say I'm eccentric slash masochistic. Okay, that's your's It sounds better than crazy. (Guns blasting) (Lynea yells) - Next we're gonna go
look for coyote skulls. - Alright.
- [Lynea] I don't know people
dismember human beings. That'd be so gross. (Phone rings) - Cat House on the Kings,
Cat House on the Kings. (Cats meowing) - [Tania] I like cats, a shitload.
I love cats. You know my first word was cat. All the VHS family videos are of me flicking through books,
giggling at pictures of them. It's embarrassing.
- [Man] Tell us your story, Tania. - [Tania Voiceover]
But then there's Lynea, cat lord at Cat House on the Kings. She has over 1,000 feral felines. Ya, 1,000.
And is said to have
given and literally given her five bedroom house over to her cats and now lives in a trailer instead, so naturally I wanted to meet her; spend 24 hours in her shoes
doing anything and everything that she would naturally. - [Woman] Alright, you read to do this? - I'm ready. Let's go. Just gonna call Beth who
is Lynea's assistant.
- [Beth] Hello, this is Beth. - [Tania] Hi Beth, it's
Tan from Buzzfeed here. We've just pulled into your car park. - [Beth] Okay, I will
come get you right now.
- I've already seen five cats. Only 995 to go. I'm about to meet the ultimate cat lady. Do you know how that feels? - [Woman] I don't know.
How do you feel? - [Tania] It's a privilege, it's an honor, and it's a little bit terrifying. - We do lock up at four o'clock, so these gates lock, but she'll
probably give you the code so in case you want to go out
and get dinner or anything. - [Tania] Hey guys. - [Beth] Chip, Toto.
- Hello. Nice to officially meet you. - Yes, and you're from Australia? - I am. I'm from Australia.
(Cat meows) - Daphne! Sophia, Sophia.
- [Tania Voiceover] When I first got there I was instantly gobsmacked
at how big her property was. She had peacocks for fuck's sake. I could feel a little bit of
apprehension from her at first, and you know, I get it. It's easy to take the piece.
Cat ladies are the butt
of so many generic gags, but it wasn't long she started telling me a little more about what it
takes to be obsessed with cats. And then she took me on a
little tour of the grounds. - I moved out of my 4,200 square foot, five bedroom home, and gave it to the cats and I live in a trailer. I was normal for many years of my life, and then I got a divorce, and then I went through some traumatic situations.
I kept saying to myself you're supposed to be doing something with your life. I never really knew what it was. Then after I started rescue, I realized that you bought a 4,200 square foot, five bedroom home on six acres and you're single with no kids. Then this started and I go,
somebody planned this for me.
So I worked for three years at a vet. - [Tania] And how did you know when it was time to give
your house over to the cats? - They would jump from the top onto my solar plexus in
the middle of the night and then they would run
across my face fighting, and I have scars, and then
they threw up in my ear. - [Tania] Excellent. - [Tania Voiceover] I
was a little bit confused about some parts of the conversation.
- Oh, there's that,
the black and white one is the one that was exiled. His name is Sultan but
I changed it to Isis. His name is Afghanistan. You wonder about Middle Eastern men.
- [Tania Voiceover] She
knows I'm Arab, right? But otherwise, most of it was cool. So she's invested her retirement in building separate
ICUs in various sections throughout her property for the sick, old, young, and in betweens. - [Lynea] And in the
winter they have heaters and in the summer they have misters and ceiling fans and a water cooler. - [Tania Voiceover] Basically,
they live better than me, ya.
- We're getting into feral territory. These are the anti-socials, the wilds, the don't touch me and I
won't touch you kittens. - [Tania] This is where I belong. It's kind of like the Blair Witch.
Have you always loved cats? - Yes, and my mom
wouldn't let me have one. Look at me now. Fixed her, didn't I? But I think I went a little overboard. - [Tania Voiceover] So
what are the numbers for all you people wondering how the fuck she feeds 1,000 plus cats? So, every week Lynea purchases
1,300 pounds of dry food, 1,000 cans of wet food,
600 pounds of litter, 60 rolls of paper towels, nine
gallons of laundry detergent, six gallons of dish washing
detergent, and 600 trash bags.
- [Man] Fuck. - [Lynea] Look at. - Um. - [Lynea] So, what'd you think? - So we're halfway through the 24 hours.
It feels like we're in
a post-apocalyptic world that has been overrun by cats. All humans have been defeated and we now have a cat lord. This is him. (Cat hisses)
(cat yowling) He's the boss.
(Cat meows) Is it a pillow, it is a cat? It's both. - [Tania Voiceover] I realized that night that putting a couple of hundred cats in one house is like if the Walking Dead and Kardashians made a love-child. We grabbed some dinner
and then fed them supper. - [Tania] My god, (laughs)
I'm queen of the cats.
- [Tania Voiceover] It was a time. - Is this real-life? Yes, I'm your mother now.
(Cats meowing) Totally. Wee. - [Tania Voiceover] I don't
know, something happened.
Went to bed, suddenly it
was four fuckin' a.M.. (Lively percussion music) - There were so many cats at the door. So many paws coming through underneath. (Cats meowing)
Meowing.
- Ready?
I'm ready. Yes. Just meowing and meowing. Forever meowing.
(Laughs) (lively percussion music) - So, in the morning we'll
have you mix the food, and while you're there you're gonna have 50 hungry cats just meowing
and screaming and you know, and then after that
we'll take the platters all the way down to the
river and feed the kennels. And then we can probably
do the medications and the feeding at the kittens. They even do poop walk,
which is walk the property with a little thing like at Disneyland. You know the rake and the ...? (Cat meows)
- Done.
I made about 20 trays of food and gained some upper body strength. - [Lynea] You haven't taken
any culinary courses, have you? - [Tania] No. This is every morning you do this? - Seven days a week. We're gonna wash the
dishes from the breakfast.
- [Tania Voiceover] Then
I cleaned a lot of shit. - [Lynea] It's kind of
like panning for gold. Look at that gold, my god. - [Tania] Come here.
Don't go that way. - [Lynea] That's one of the
ways you prevent disease. - [Tania Voiceover] Fucked up a bit. - I put the kitty litter
in the wrong bucket.
(Lively theatrical music) What? Oh, it's um. - [Man] I know. - There's some poo there. Lovely.
Well, I just had to rinse
the feces off my mop. So what now? - [Lynea] We poop walk. - [Tania] But we did the poop walk. - [Lynea] Oh no, no,
that's the litter boxes.
(Lighthearted music) - I thought that I had
shoveled shit already, but apparently not. Poopin' scoopin' Judy. - [Lynea] You're gonna
have to be a little quicker or you're gonna be here for a week. That's number one out of a thousand.
- [Man] That's number one
out of a thousand. (Laughs) - I feel excited when I find a poo. I'm like yes, another poo! - Next we're gonna do the boxes. - [Man] Big box? - Ya, the big box out front.
These are our outdoor litter boxes. There are probably 20 or more. - [Tania Voiceover] And then
we had a couple of dramas. - We just had somebody
come in with a surgery.
Someone just brought in
a cat from the public that they want to get spayed or neutered and we have to fill out the forms, do the intake, and then
we take them to the vet, and then bring 'em back. - [Tania Voiceover] Then came the kittens. Hundreds. - Alright, so where to for now? - We're going to feed kittens.
- Alright mate, say goodbye to your balls. - [Lynea] I tell 'em it'll
make a good man out of him. Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah, hallelujah Hall-e-lujah Hallelujah Hallelujah - This time there's probably 200. In June there were probably 300 in here.
- Kittens?
- Kittens. And then the other building
next door would also have been full with another
hundred that were sick. - [Tania Voiceover] Check
their bums, ear, eyes. Most of them were doing pretty well, and you know, some were
having a rough time.
- Are you okay? Nobody wants to give him a chance. - [Tania] It is heartbreaking though. - So basically, when the kitties come in we have to put them under
quarantine immediately, at least for two to three weeks just to make sure everything's in order. And when we do that we
just give 'em probiotics.
So this is stuff you can
just buy from Amazon, and if encounter any issues with them then we have to reach out to our vet. Check out their little eyes and make sure everything's okay with them. (Phone ringing) So we're just gonna give them .5 Each. - I've got this, Karla.
- Okay, thank you.
- [Tania] So that's four done. How many more to go? - [Karla] We have the whole room to do, plus we work our way that way. (Tania sighs)
Ya. So it usually takes us all morning.
- This little, this little runt here, when you hold him your heart breaks and you just want the best for him. I can understand how the
obsession would grow from there and how you would just want them all to have an equal chance at life. - Okay.
- Are you obsessed? - I think you kinda have to be, huh? - [Lynea] Did you want coffee? - Ya, I'd love some. (Laughs) - Okay.
Did you enjoy the litter box duty? - [Tania] So much. - You did a great job. - [Tania Voiceover] And then
she suggested we get some air. - [Lynea] We could take a walk.
I take a gun. Is that alright with you? - [Tania Voiceover] Guns
aren't big in Australia. - And we're taking your gun with us? - When you're out there, there's
nobody but you, hopefully. And that if a coyote comes,
I've had 'em challenge us and I've had 'em try to
take one of the dogs, that anything that makes
noise is a good thing.
Two rottweilers and a 38-Special
and you know you're safe. Okay? That's yours. I don't normally shoot
unless a coyote attacks, but since you wanted to see what it's like to live out in the country, we'll go. Shoot at that sign.
(Lively Caribbean music) You can pull the hammer back. - [Tania Voiceover] As if
I know how to shoot a gun. - What's the hammer? It's loaded? (Gun fires) (lively Caribbean music) - [Lynea] Aim. - Again?
(Gun fires) I don't even know where that one went.
- [Lynea] That one went wild. (Laughs) - This is such a lovely bonding exercise. - [Lynea] Ya, then we'll
let you use the shotgun. So grab a couple of those.
- What? (Lively Caribbean music) (gun fires) (gun fires) - Next we're gonna go
look for coyote skulls. - Alright. What a morning. I haven't even had breakfast yet.
- [Tania Voiceover]
Lynea was talking about how she found a dead
coyote a month or so ago in a field and wanted the skull. So after our bonding sesh
we headed over and found it. I mean, this has absolutely
nothing to do with cats, and you know, I'm a vegetarian, but it was still her time
so why not include it in this video, ya? - [Lynea] I don't know how
people dismember human beings. Here, your turn.
- [Tania] Wow. (Sighs) - Okay, you're the bag lady. And you're taking this home, right? No? - So we've been up for six hours, shoveled a lot of shit,
fed hundreds of mouths, cut off a coyote's head, shot some guns. Probably should just have a glass of water and a nap right about now.
(Goose honks) - [Tania Voiceover] And then suddenly we were having our last words.
- My obsession with cats
I've kept in control. I have never taken in more
cats than I can afford. So I feel that because
I can take care of them and I spay and neuter 'em all, and that the facility is
good and the cats are healthy that it's not a bad obsession. I gave up my retirement, my
home, and my life for cats.
- [Tania] Would you have it any other way? - I have no regrets. The people that don't
agree with what I do, they think I've gone overboard. They think that there's
something wrong with me. - [Tania] What do you think? - I think maybe they're right.
I am obsessed about it, but
my obsession is to the point where this is the most
important part of my life, and I don't mind. - [Tania Voiceover] I
mean, at the end of the day this obsession had done a lot of good. - We have rescued 30,000 plus cats and 8,000 plus dogs. The county hasn't taken
in cats, even to kill 'em for over five years.
There's 200,000 on the streets. So, we get them out. We're like the Costco, the wholesaler. They were newborns when they came and they were all covered in metal.
I want to fix it and I can't fix it, and I get angry and I
just, puts me into the well, I've gotta save more. - [Tania Voiceover] And I kinda get it. It's so easy to look at someone and call their lifestyle unhealthy, but she's got something
that gives her meaning. - To me it is just a way of life.
I get up in the morning and I'm happy. That's all that counts. - [Tania] I guess the majority of the time we see obsessions as negative things, things that can overwhelm
us and restrict us, but Lynea sees her obsession as something that's really positive
and it gives her life a lot of meaning which is really cool. For her, it's just life, it's normal as it is for us to be obsessed with the things that we love in life..
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