European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - September 28, 1985, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Cats for Katz Magazine by Kay Bartlett associated press Edith Katz is in the cat business. Well sort of. She s a one woman Rescue squad an cat broker Lor hundreds of  a Kitten Call Edie. Shell gel you one. Suddenly become allergic to your siamese Call Edie Shell find someone who wants a siamese. Want a Jet Black cat Don Call Edie. She won t help you unless she knows you or you come with pretty Good references. People use Jet Black cats in Somo kind of worship services so i m always suspicious when someone Calls and says they want a Jet Black cat says mrs. Katz Edie to her friends. I ask them for their name and number and Call them  As Well As brokering cats Edie feeds strays neuters them when she can. Takes obviously pregnant female strays into her Home where seven cats she just could t give away reside so she can More easily tame and teed the Kittens to give away. She pays the expenses out of her own pocket but won t say How much it costs. You can t count the Cost of love says the 56-year old Mother of two children and grandmother of two. It All started eight years ago when she moved from Brooklyn into a new apartment Complex in Manhattan. Close to the Hudson River. The ind All around her was vacant awaiting development and there was quite a cat population. One Day Edie saw a sign announcing Poison was going Down to get super  it was up to me to keep those cats bellies full so they would t eat the  she says. Each night i put More food Down and More food disappeared. One Day i counted 53 cats and that s when i decided the entire West Side should be  she started catching the females and taking them to a Low Cost pot care Center to have them neutered. As the neighbourhood was developed she moved the feeding station from one open lot to another. Now she s Down to feeding two torn cats she can t catch on the school parking lot next door to her apartment. She s also busily outwitting the grounds keepers who do not like her feeding the cats even though she has permission from the school. They just hate  she says. So Edie gets up before the crack of Dawn and has their first feeding Down by 5 . The grounds keepers Don t come until 6 15. Then she feeds them again at night when the keepers have left. I just get endless  she says. I get Calls from someone who knows someone. It s been very Edilh Kate Holdi Roger before Tome of her Call in her new York apartment which it a Haven for Itrat. Saturday september 28, 1985 rewarding. I still keep in touch with people i gave cats  Katz puts up about five signs when she has a cat to give away one where she works As a key punch operator others at a Bank a pet food shop a supermarket and a health food store. Every april 1 she has a cat people party at her Home usually about 50 people show up most of them strangers. They Chat about cats. Anyone who was not a cat person would have a horrible time she says. But we have a great time proving we re All april fools about our  she s also met an interesting assortment of characters including the Street person who called himself or.  or. Z would build himself a Little cardboard estate on one of the vacant lots and he would find rusted old cans he would give me to teed the cats she recalls he would also clip coupons for me from newspapers and  she s had some Odd requests. A Man called saying he was interested in a Gray cat. Mrs. Katz took his number and the next time she got a Gray Kitten she called him. He asked her to bring it Over. She not Only delivers her adopters she provides a Little starter kit. When she got there she discovered he had a Gray poodle. He asked me if they were the same color she remembers. It was then i realized he was Blind i asked Why he had so specifically wanted a Gray cat. Since he could t see it. He said he thought they would go Well  they did. They re living happily Ever after. All of my customers Are Happy customers she says. I be taken a few Back but it was almost always due to allergies people did t know they  some potential customers Don t become customers. A Mother brought her son with her to look at a Kitten not yet weaned. They decided they liked the Kitten but Edie decided it would not be a Good life or the Kitten. The kid was so rough and his Mother did t discipline him at All she says. I told them i would Call them when the Kitten was ready. Instead. I called them Back and said the Kitten died. I got him a better  mrs Katz says there Are a whole network of cat people throughout Manhattan who do the same thing in their neighbourhoods. They Are All wonderful people except one. She says. There is one woman who pretends she will take unwanted cats and find Homes Lor them but i know she Sells them for  mrs. Katz warns. Although she Only Leeds the two torn cats now. Mrs. Katz is never Short of Kittens. People drop off litters in front of her apartment building. People know i m Here and that i la take care of them she says. That s of. It s better than dumping them somewhere  i took a Kitten away from some kids just the other Day. It was so Young maybe less than three weeks old. Ii had to be bottle fed. It was so cute. I know i had to get it a Home right  and she did. Her seventh cat Belle was a recent addition. Belle had been one of the wild population All of whom had always had names even when there were 53 of them. Even though they lived outside they were All my  she said. I used to spend an hour a Day in the mornings petting those who wanted to come up and be petted. They All knew  mrs. Katz got worried about Belle s survival and even though she had been a Street cat she s adjusting nicely. She took to the Good life right away mrs. Katz says. She took to the bed and the Sola As though she was born to  the stars and stripes Page 13