Meet the woman who has 122 cats - and yes, she does have a husband
By
Boudicca Fox-Leonard
'People always ask if I have a husband... luckily for him he works long
hours so misses all the hard work of 6.30am starts, feeding, changing
£30 of cat litter and cleaning from top to bottom every day'
Paul Webb
And they call it pussy love: Silvana Valentino-Locke
Heard the one about the woman who has 122 cats?
MIAAAAOW MANY??!!
It’s certainly moggy mayhem
at Silvana Valentino Locke’s home. She has 52 lucky enough to have the
run of her four-bedroom house while 40 live at the bottom of her garden
with another 30 in a neighbouring field. But although hers may be a
cats’ tale of obsession, it’s not one of squalor.
She forks out £90,000 a year to have her pets fed, watered and their every need attended to by four live-in staff at her home and rescue centre.
But she’s not the traditional cat-loving spinster – she’s a 55-year-old mum of two with a husband of 32 years.
Paul Webb
Moggy admirer: Silvana Valentino-Locke of Downe Kent with some of the 55 cats in her home
Hubby Tony bravely puts up with her compulsion and provides
nearly half the cash she needs to support her feline family from the
courier firm he runs.
The rest comes from donations, fundraising drives and the charity shop she set up four years ago.
Cat stats
£4,500
Monthly vet bill including neutering
£500
Weekly cat food bill
£2,000
Monthly spend on cat nannies
£30
Cat litters per day
£90,000
Yearly total
“It’s an addiction,” she confesses above the drone of
purring. “It’s like I have OCD about cats. I feel like it’s my job to
look after them all. Every time I get a phone call about an abandoned
cat, I can’t say ‘no’.
“My car number plate has ‘mad cat woman’
printed on it. You have to be mad to do what I’m doing. What with
feeding and vet bills, I’m chasing my tail all the time.” She says her
passion for rescuing abandoned pussies galore started on a childhood
holiday in Italy.
Paul Webb
“There were always kittens in my grandma’s garden,” says
Silvana. “I was 11 when I rescued my first cat. A pregnant cat came to
the house and I took her in and cared for her. I’ve been mad on cats
ever since. When my own children were born I was working with special
needs children. But even then I would rescue cats and support my hobby
from my wages.
“Now every man who comes to adopt a cat always
asks, ‘have you got a husband?’ They can’t believe anyone would tolerate
all these cats. Luckily Tony works long hours so he doesn’t see all the
work of caring for them.
“He sees the results of what we do and it’s a reward for him as well.”
Over
the past 12 years Silvana has rescued 600 cats and has rehomed 7,000.
While she says she has always looked after at least six or seven pet
cats at any one time, it was only after moving to Downe, Greater London,
20 years ago that she started rescuing them properly.
Cool for cats
“I decided to turn my shed into a foster home for cats,” she
says. “They were so ill when they arrived, I worked hard to get them
well. But I grew too fond of them and ended up keeping them.”
Soft-hearted
Silvana admits her obsession has taken over her life. Its
£90,000-a-year cost is an estimate and doesn’t include electricity and
petrol costs. She also spends £4,500 a month on vet bills.
She
has all her rescue cats neutered and spayed while feeding them costs
£500 a week. She says: “A lot of the expense is absorbed into the
household costs.”
Channel 5
Happy families
Silvana says she needs two live-in staff – cat nannies as she calls them – to help her care for her own pets in the house.
She
pays them £250 a week plus food and board. All 52 of Silvana’s house
cats are fed three times a day and their 12 litter trays are changed
daily at £30 a time. The rescue centre cats get through two 28lb bags of
cat litter a day. Moggies fill every corner of the house. Dinner time
is chaos as the animals clamber over Silvana and her family. And she
confesses each night she and Tony sleep with as many as eight in their
bed.
“They all have their own position,” says Silvana. “There are
a couple that want to get so close to you. One lies on my neck. In
winter it’s lovely, but it’s a bit hot now.
Channel 5
“Another one wants to do my hair. I call him the hairdresser.”
But
far from resembling some wee-sodden cat hell, Silvana’s home is a
peaceful paradise – thanks in large part to the twice-daily full house
cleans and incense that Silvana burns in the living room. “Tony likes a
clean house and I respect that,” she says. “He has to sleep with all
these cats. But he adores them.”
A typical day for Silvana starts
at 6.30am when she plays with the cats before feeding the house mogs.
At 8am her staff turn up to care for the others.
Paul Webb
Silvana Valentino-Locke's cat Victor
Meanwhile in her house Silvana and her “cat nanny” change all
the litter trays and clean. “It takes about an hour and a half. We
hoover and mop every bit of floor and furniture,” says Silvana. “It’s a
long, exhausting job. All the time the phone is going with people with
cats that need to be rescued.”
All 52 of Silvana’s house cats are
rescue and each has a sad story – from five-year-old Squiggly born with
his umbilical cord round a back leg that had to be amputated, to
six-year-old Victor found in a squalid house living under floorboards
as a kitten.
He was covered in ticks, fleas had eaten his fur and
his stomach was full of worms. Today, thanks to Silvana, he is a
handsome, healthy long-haired cat. Such care takes all of Silvana’s time
but she says Tony has endless patience.
Paul Webb
Squiggly who only has three legs
“The only time he came close to being annoyed was when we bought our holiday home in Italy.
“It was supposed to be a break from cats but now I’ve got lots there too.”
Tony
knows it’s impossible to limit Silvana’s obsession. “I try not to think
too much about cats being everywhere,” he says. “What I love is that
Silvana is very passionate about what she does. Now and then I throw my
toys out of the pram. But when you see the results of saving a cat and
how she turns it round, you let the other stuff go.” Silvana’s two sons
Daniel, 30 and Tony Jnr, 27, are used to their mum’s ways and admire
her.
“When they were teenagers I think it might have been tough
for them,” she says. “You can’t have a sandwich without the cats trying
to get involved. Luckily all their friends thought it was great.”
But
the boys do want her to slow down. “They think I work too hard,” she
says. “I’ve also been hospitalised four times after getting blood
poisoning from bites and scratches.
“But I do it for love. This is my life’s work and I feel very lucky to have a family who support what I do.
90 Cats & Counting: Cat Crazies is on Channel 5 at 8pm on Wednesday, July 1.
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