Twenty-Eight Cats Vanish from Neighborhood

VILLAS — How would 28 cats disappear from a neighborhood at the same time?
That’s the question two Villas cat lovers are asking.
Sue Reynolds, 151 W. Atlantic Avenue lost 11 cats while her neighbor, Danielle Beerley, of 125 W. Delaware Parkway, lost 17 cats.
Both women said their cats disappeared three nights before a March 1 snowstorm.
Beerly said all the cats were neutered. Reynolds said her cats were “indoor-outdoor” cats while Beerly’s were outdoor tabbies.
Reynolds and Beerly said they have no enemies in the neighborhood and no one has complained about the cats.
Beerley said another cat disappeared last week.
“I feel like I live in the Bermuda Triangle,” she said.
Reynolds suggested another animal may have eaten the cats. While coyotes have been spotted at the county airport in Erma and near the former button factory off Fulling Mill Road, according to Lower Township Animal Control Officer Don Montgomery, they have not been sighted on the Westside of Villas.
He said it would be difficult to trap that many cats without a witness.
“It’s just weird because I don’t know anyone who has any traps in that area,” said Montgomery.
He said he has been able to trap as many as six cats in an hour on previous occasions.
Another possibility is the cats sought shelter in a shed and were shut inside, said Montgomery.
Reynolds said she heard that some cats have been used in pit bull fights.
Beerly has volunteered with two animal rescue organizations.
“I know how hard it is to trap a cat,” she said. “Sometimes it takes weeks.”
Reynolds lost every cat she owned while Beerly has three cats remaining at her home.
She dismisses a theory of the cats freezing to death or being poisoned since it was prior to the snowstorm and no carcasses have been found. Beerly said she searched under neighbor’s decks for the cats. The cats did roam beyond their owner’s properties, they said.
Beerly’s cats were sheltered in little houses and crates with blankets. The cats were mainly feral and some would not tolerate a human touching them, she said.
Beerly said she has been helping cats for 23 years while Reynolds said she has been aiding animals her entire life.
An additional mystery is other than Reynolds and Beerly, other neighbors have not lost their cats.
Both women said they would not keep any more cats.