Pretoria ‘cat lady’ needs to get rid of 100 cats after catfight with neighbour

A catfight between neighbours looks set to leave a “cat lady” from Pretoria north with less than two months to rehouse more than 100 cats from her property or see them put down.

“Come, mom’s children, come,” Magda Hennop called as the cats started making their way towards her during The Citizen‘s visit to her house on Wednesday. In a few seconds, more than 20 cats were vying for her attention.

“You don’t choose a cat, a cat chooses you,” the cat lover said.

She said the trouble started last month, when she heard a woman screaming outside her home.

“When I got to the fence I saw five or six of her dogs attacking one of the cats. The dogs had the cat by the leg, the tail, and in the face.”

She said she jumped into the fray, and then pushed the cat into the corner while trying to hold off the dogs that frantically tried to get to the cat.

After the fight, she says “the woman said the cat bit her and went to the hospital the following day after allegedly falling ill”.

It didn’t end there though, and two weeks ago, Hennop received a call that informed her the neighbour was planning to sue her for damages up to R30,000, and if that was not enough, the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) and the City of Tshwane were sent to her property on 4 November to do an inspection.

Hennop was given a notice by the city to move the animals or they would be put down and Hennop would possibly face legal consequences.

“I can’t chase them away or poison them. I care for them,” Hennop said.

“No one takes better care of animals than my mom,” said her son, Michael.

Hennop said she cannot leave a stray cat behind.

“If I see a dead cat on the side of the road, I will go back with a towel and collect the cat and bury it,” she said.

The cats live in the backyard Hennop and her son turned into a cat enclosure, with a container for bedding, a feeding
station, and a homemade climbing structure.

The walls around this section were also extended to keep the cats away from the house. Everywhere you look, you see cats either napping, playing or snacking.

“I’ve had a lot of cats for more than 20 years,” said Hennop.

It takes approximately 10 kilograms of cat food per day to feed all the stray cats that have moved onto her property over the years.

“I don’t know how much it costs me per month,” she said. “I’ve lost count. But to be honest, I would rather not know what they are costing me.”

She receives some donations from the community and a local animal shelter in the area.

“They are like extended family to me. I know every cat’s name, and when I call them they come to me,” she said.

Hennop says a lot of the cats living with her were dropped off by families who could no longer care for or wanted their pet.

“Many of these people promise to send food, but never do,” she said.”

Hennop said she is not giving up and is now looking to move to a property large enough to enable her to hold onto her cats.

– marizkac@citizen.co.za

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