We’ve all heard the “crazy cat lady” tropes, but not all cat ladies are as crazy as we’ve made them out to be.

Some of them are driven by a mission to nurture, shelter, and give these loving cats a chance at life, much like this cat lady from California.

Lynea Lattanzio sat comfortably on her large sleeping couch as she explained how she ended up with over a thousand cats. Around her, felines were sitting, climbing, scratching, purring, and napping. They came in different sizes, coats, breeds, and personalities. And all of them are living in The Cat House on the Kings.

After a difficult divorce in 1981, Lattanzio lived in a five-bedroom house with a pool.

It was a comfortable place that afforded her a quiet lifestyle. All six acres and a river view to boot.

However, in those days, she often found herself musing on what she was doing in a how so big, being a single woman with no children. Nine years later, her dad asked for her help to look for Manx cats. His two cats died of old age and he wants to look for replacements. Lynea went to a local animal shelter to look for the breed but ended up with a box of 15 abandoned kittens.

And if you’re wondering if those were Manx kittens, you’re wrong.

Since then, her troupe grew bigger and bigger every month, until she ended up with around 60 cats. They were all over her room and she soon realized that her current house just won’t do.

Then, in 1993, Lattanzio decided to work as a surgical veterinary technician with a local veterinarian. This work enabled her to pay for the growing expenses of her cats and broadened her medical knowledge. At that point, she was taking care of 150 cats.

She had to sell some of her belongings just to get by.

She sold her 1973 Mercedes 450 SL and her two-karat diamond wedding ring. She won’t be needing those things to where she’s headed in life, so might as well turn them into something that could help her raise her cats.

In 1997, after the Fresno County Board of Supervisors permitted her to use her property as a shelter, her organization was pushed into the public eye. This gave her enough publicity to attract volunteers and donations so she could keep the cats fed.

By 2002, the organization got its non-profit status.

They are now known as The Cat House on the Kings. With over 800 adults cats and 300 kittens, the shelter today is run by a team of volunteers that look after the cats. They also have quarantine facilities and a veterinary clinic.

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Through a generous donation, she also annexed the neighboring property and install cat-proof fences so she could realize the vision for her shelter – a no cage zone where cats can roam freely and safely.

But in the end, it was not her dream to keep 1,100 cats.

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The goal has always been to rehome them and give them to families that will love them the way she did.

It might be an awful lot of cats, but good thing Lattanzio has plenty of love to give.

Watch how this “crazy cat lady” grew her shelter to fit over a thousand cats.

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Source: YouTube – truly, The Cat House on the Kings, Instagram – @thecathouseonthekings