Gearing up for a cat fight

Susan McCormack

COSTA MESA -- Patricia Hotz likes cats.

Using her own money, the Costa Mesa resident has rescued more than 100

stray felines over the past 20 years.

“I couldn’t just walk away and leave animals to be abandoned,” she said.

“I know a lot of things can happen to cats.”

In most cases, Hotz said, the animals she has found have been placed in

permanent homes.

But she has kept many of them, and though she says she hasn’t taken any

strays home in the last three years, Hotz is facing jail time and fines

for adopting too many cats.

Last May, an animal control officer came to Hotz’s home and cited her for

keeping more than four animals in her home, the limit listed in the

city’s municipal code.

Since then, animal control has referred the case to the county district

attorney’s office, which is charging Hotz with a misdemeanor crime. She

faces up to one year in jail and a $1,000 fine, as well as being forced

to exterminate her cats, which could cost her about $10,000. Her court

date is Dec. 13.

“Something’s wrong here,” said her attorney, Bill Urban. “This woman has

not hurt anybody.”

Urban said initially he was hesitant to take the case, which their mutual

veterinarian had referred to him.

“My first reaction was, ‘Oh my God, some crazy cat lady,”’ he said.

But a talk with the veterinarian and a visit to Hotz’s home convinced him

to fight a case he admits he won’t “retire on.”

“[The cats] are taken better care of than most children,” Urban said.

Hotz treats her cats as if they were at a year-round health spa. Every

day, she places drops of a homeopathic medicine into their filtered water

to help boost their immune systems, and she makes their food.

Hotz said the homemade food helps cut down on costs, and she believes

it’s healthier than regular cat food. The recipe calls for adding cooked

oats, beans, rice, broccoli, beef and a nutritional supplement to canned

food.

Prior to her citation, Hotz received praise for her work to rescue

abandoned cats. In 1993, Golden West Community College’s campus paper,

The Western Sun, featured an article on Hotz, who was working for KOCE.

The article praised her for helping to control the college’s burgeoning

cat problem.

“You can thank her,” the article stated. “She finds it in her means to

feed these abandoned cats and ... have them neutered to prevent the

problem from escalating. She’s been providing this service now for seven

years.”

Hotz’s employer at KOCE, chief engineer Donald J. Sinex, said for five

years he owned a wild cat that Hotz had captured and helped tame.

“It is Pat’s compassionate nature toward all living things that drives

her to try to help in situations where animals would otherwise be put to

death,” Sinex said.

Carol Wypick, a veterinary technician, said Hotz takes excellent care of

her cats.

“Everybody has a name,” Wypick said. “She knows all their personalities.

It’s just a darn shame ... why don’t people just leave her alone? These

are the kind of people we need.”

A call to animal control on Thursday was not returned.

Hotz’s only hope now is to place most of her cats in permanent homes. She

said this has always been her intention, but over the years, she has been

forced to keep less desirable pets -- injured or older cats. Her cats are

indoor pets and are spayed and neutered. Hotz said she won’t give them to

just anybody.

“I want them placed in homes where I won’t have to worry about them,” she

said, recalling past incidents where cats she had given up were later

returned or dumped elsewhere.

Anyone interested in adopting a cat may call Urban’s office at (949)

650-6292.