Cats, cats everywhere and all to be adopted.

Byline: MATT COOPER The Register-Guard

SPRINGFIELD - The stench of urine and feces hits you first, overwhelming, and you instantly start breathing through your mouth. Imagine the odor from the world's most pungent cheese, spoiling.

You step inside and, from around the empty beer bottles, clothes and piles of soiled newspapers, they start appearing - tabbies, tortoiseshells and browns.

Grays, black-and-whites, straight blacks.

Shorthairs, tiger-stripes, Persian mixes.

Cats, cats, cats, 23 in all. Cats on the counter, cats under the couch, cats sneezing in the corner or scratching up furniture. Adults cautiously circling, kittens squinting against the sudden daylight.

When the tenants of Unit 16 at the Park Place Townhouses near downtown were evicted this week, they left behind more than their debt from nonpayment of rent.

About two dozen cats were found, mostly strays plucked from outside only to wallow in an attempt at humane treatment gone unquestionably awry.

"It's disgusting," said 19-year-old neighbor Lacy Cunningham, stepping around bits of kibble and excrement as she fed the cats Thursday morning. "It is basically life-threatening, because of all the animal stuff. ... '

Cunningham and 24-year-old Beth Alvey, a fellow cat lover and tenant, were out of answers by then.

They'd tried without success to unload the cats on the police department, city animal control and Lane County Animal Regulation Authority.

What should they do with them? More than once, they said, the response came back, "Open the door."

While the city contracts with the animal regulation authority for stray-cat services, the agency only accepts animals that are delivered to it, Program Manager Mike Wellington said. And the city would have to pay $35 per hour for an authority officer to make the house call.

The long-term solution is licensing cats, Wellington said, and he has put just such a proposal before both Springfield and Eugene city officials. Licensing would entice owners to neuter their animals, reducing overpopulation and strays, he said.

As for Thursday's dilemma, it's the apartment owner's responsibility to restrict animals in the units, Wellington said, or, in this case, to bring them in, a dicey proposition considering a scratch from a cat is far worse than a dog's bite.

Knowing that, Park Place owner Tina Novack said she felt unequal to the task. She said she was frustrated by the lack of support from city agencies and bewildered by her predicament.

"I don't know at what point we're going to say, `That's enough,' and do something," she said. "We can't leave them in there."

And then, just like that, the problem fixed itself.

One of the evicted tenants returned Thursday afternoon, scooped the cats up, put them in kennels and boxes and hauled them to the Greenhill Humane Society in west Eugene.

Neither Novack nor Johnni Prince, Greenhill executive director, would reveal the man's name. But Prince said he broke down at the shelter counter as he relinquished cats he had perceived as his rescues and companions.

Greenhill accepts all cats surrendered by their owners and asks $35 per cat to offset the cost of care, Prince said.

The man who brought the cats in Thursday had no money, Prince said. She estimated that caring for the cats could cost the shelter as much as $7,600.

Aside from the financial hit the shelter will have to absorb, the story could have a happy ending, she said: The cats generally seem healthy and adoptable, a prospect that may put their former owners' minds at ease.

"A couple of nice people felt sorry for the stray cats and tried to do the right thing," Prince said. "Then one led to two, two led to three and they wound up with a situation they absolutely couldn't control."

ADOPTING A STRAY

About two dozen cats rescued from an apartment in Springfield on Thursday are expected to be available for adoption in one week.

The cost per cat for adoption is $50, which includes vaccinations, microchip identification, a free exam by a local veterinarian and a discount on neutering.

For more information, call the Greenhill Humane Society at 689-1503.

CAPTION(S):

Neighbors Lacy Cunningham (left) and Beth Alvey check on the cats' well-being.