For the Horsefly Institute on Cat Hoarding Studies

(CBS 11 News) GRAPEVINE TEXAS Grapevine city officials moved to close a home filled with nearly 100 wild cats Tuesday.

They were acting on complaints brought last week, and when the homeowners couldn't remove the cats by Monday, police and animal control personnel moved in with search and seizure warrants to take the animals.

The extraction, which occurred at a private home in the 1300-block of Airline Drive, could take days.

Tuesday animal control personnel in hazmat suits rushed to contain the cats. Some neighbors say the action is overdue. "We knew there was a lot over there, but we didn't know there was that many," said Tommy Huff, from across the street.

Leslie Huff echoed similar complaints. "They get in our garage and have babies and everything." She says the feral cats upset her dog, and especially her tomcat, ‘Boots’. "If he saw one of those cats in our yard he'd run 'em off," she declared. "They don't want any other animals in their yard."

Neighbor Judy Martinez says she was pressured to "adopt" two of the kittens in question when her daughter discovered them under a dumpster. "They're in your trash, they're in your yard, cat fights late at night," says Martinez, adding, "There've been times when it sounds like a major fight going on; but - and the smell…" her voice trails off.

The smell coming from the home was overpowering even for city officials investigating complaints.

"At first they went in there with regular clothes on and about five minutes later they come out coughing and got masks," Tommy Huff said.

One of those who ventured inside the home agrees. "The cats were living in their own feces, there's feces all over the counter and stuff like that," said animal control supervisor Lawrence Hopkins, wearing a hazmat suit and carrying a breathing apparatus.

"Most of 'em are semi-feral cats so we're having to trap them in there. We got the friendly ones out and we're having to trap the ones what are left… they're living under the furniture under the beds, behind the stove, the 'fridge’," Hopkins said.

Animal control officials call it a ‘totally unhealthy’ situation.

Neighbors and public records identify the homeowners as Jay and June Dodd. The couple did not want to comment, or to be photographed, apparently. Mr. Dodd was seen hiding behind a towel and got into a police car as he left the home he and his wife reportedly shared with the cats until moving into an apartment last weekend.

"They just said it'd just kind of gotten out of control," says Grapevine police spokesman, Sgt. Bob Murphy. "A lot of female cats having kittens, the numbers just exponentially get bigger."

The first three dozen or so cats are being held in temporary cages at the North Texas Humane Society in the hopes they can be moved to another local facility.

The animals will have to be segregated from the rest of the animals because no one knows whether they're diseased. The first wave of cats appear to be in good shape. According to Murphy, the homeowners left them adequate food and water and are cooperating with city officials.

(CBS 11 News)