BELOVED CATS MAY HAVE BEEN FACTOR IN OWNER'S DEATH.

Byline: Amy Collins Daily News Staff Writer

Francine Katzenbogen had a thing for cats.

Her $7 million lottery winnings paid for four-star feline lodging at her home in Studio City, replete with maid service and custom menus for each of her 20 cats.

But in the end, Katzenbogen's beloved companions actually may have hastened her death Oct. 30 by worsening her severe asthma, her father said Wednesday.

``She's an average girl who was an animal lover. She felt like she ain't got much of a family; the cats filled in,'' said her father, Irving Katzenbogen, who lived with her at her Studio City mansion. ``She was a good-hearted slob.''

On Wednesday, a memorial service was held in Van Nuys for Katzenbogen, 51, who died of complications related to her asthma, family and friends said.

``She had a terrific asthma problem all her life,'' said Susan O'Brien, a friend and employee of the North Hollywood-based Actors and Others for Animals.

Other friends in the animal rescue community said she devoted her money, emotions and energies to improving the lot of abused and abandoned animals, but held a special passion for the cats at her home.

``They were treated like little celebrities,'' O'Brien said.

And they were waited on hand and paw.

``When a cat pooped, the maid picked it up,'' said Barbara Fabricant, who knew Katzenbogen.

Within three months after Katzenbogen won the New York State lottery, her brother and mother died. She moved to Los Angeles, bringing the homeless cats she had cared for with her mother.

Katzenbogen purchased her $1 million Laurel Canyon Boulevard mansion in 1989. Her love for cats became public in 1992 when her neighbors objected to the issuance of a zoning variance to keep 20 cats at her home, a number well above the three-cat-per-home limit.

She was allowed to keep the cats, but not acquire any more.

Fabricant said she met Katzenbogen in 1993 when they both showed up at a Glassell Park house where 104 animals - including 68 cats - were found living in deplorable conditions. Fabricant recalls seeing a well-dressed, ``classy'' woman pulling up in an expensive car and trudging into the flea- and feces-infested home.

It was Katzenbogen.

``She got in there with all of us, and she picked up the sickest of all the cats,'' Fabricant said. ``She paid all the bills for those cats, for months, to get those cats back into health.''

Irving Katzenbogen said his daughter died a week ago while she was watching TV about 2 a.m. She had just gone outside to get some fresh air and relief from her asthma. He said she has recently been hospitalized for her asthma.

In addition to the cats at her home, Katzenbogen had two dogs, and two horses she kept stabled in the Santa Clarita Valley. Those animals and many of the cats have been adopted through her extensive network of friends, O'Brien said.

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PHOTO Francine Katzenbogen

Lottery winner had 20 felines