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Hoarder Kept 240* Cats in Filthy Storage Structure [UPDATED]

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Photo by R.E.˜ via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr

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UPDATE 12:28 PM: The final tally for the number of cats seized from Regan's hoard is 240, says the Star-News.There's being a "crazy cat lady," as in a fondness for LOL Cats emails, jokes about spinsterhood, and perpetual fur on clothes, and then there's being a crazy cat lady, as in keeping 140 cats in feces-soiled crates inside a storage space.

The tale of 62-year-old Temple City resident Tanya Regan is extreme; she was tending to the felines daily after midnight where they were kept "stacked in filth-crusted cages," in a storage structure, according to CBS2, "but some were also fenced off along the floors in at least four chain-link structures, where feces collected in piles at the corners," reports the Star-News.

The Pasadena Humane Society says their retrieval of the animals was the "second-largest seizure in the organization's 108-year history." They also found "several dead cats stored in a freezer." Regan, who told people she had just 10 cats at her Temple City home, will face charges that "could include animal cruelty and neglect." Her hoard was discovered after volunteers who helped her contacted the authorities; neighbors had often complained about the stench.

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