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Sherry Sterner shows off some of her nine dogs at her Guinea home in Caroline County. She and her husband, Tim, have to move Some of the 46 cats that Sherry and Tim Sterner have rescued and are trying to find new homes for. |
Shoes and Socks are 8-month-old tabby siblings that love to sit on laps.
Jellybean is a spunky little 6-year-old that likes to swat.
And 17-year-old Miss Skittles just likes to take naps.
These are just a few of the abused and abandoned cats Tim and Sherry Sterner took into their Caroline County home over the years. In fact, they have so many--46 cats and nine dogs, to be exact--that a sign in their living room said, "If you want the best seat in the house, you'll have to move a cat."
That sign has now come down. After 17 years of opening their home to animals in need, the couple is losing it to foreclosure.
The Sterners haven't been given a date to vacate their home, but planned to move into a rental house in Spotsylvania County over the weekend. They are allowed to keep the nine dogs, but all 46 cats need a new home.
"It's going to be hard not having a cat in my life," Sherry said through tears.
"They give you back so much more than you give them, and they make you laugh just when you need it."
But no matter what, the cats won't be abandoned, the Sterners said.
"We want to find a good home for them," Sherry said. "It's going to take somebody special to take care of the older cats."
"If we can't find a home for all of them, one of us will stay here until they are gone," Tim said in an interview at their old home last week.
Owning so many animals may seem odd to some, Sherry acknowledged. But "it's a lifestyle we have just chosen to live."
She is a 911 dispatcher and takes most calls for the county's animal control office. If they couldn't answer a call about an abandoned or injured cat, she would call Tim.
He would pick it up and take it home, and they nursed it back to health.
Their house off Claiborne Crossing Road in Woodford sat at the end of a cul-de-sac and cats would "just show up," they said.
A skilled carpenter and Vietnam veteran, Tim was laid off from his job in December 2007. He was out of work for nearly nine months until he found a job driving a tow truck--at one-fifth of his previous salary.
Sometimes they had hot dogs or bologna for dinner. But still, they fell behind on their mortgage and said they were unable to negotiate an easier payment schedule.
But the cats didn't go without.
"I used to give them canned and dry food until it got too expensive," Tim said. "Now they just get dry food."
Despite hard times, the Sterners have done more than give these cats food and shelter. They've given them love.
Each cat has a name and a story. All have been housebroken, and all but six have been spayed or neutered.
The last deed they want to do for them now is find them good homes.
"We'll be OK, because we are survivors," Sherry said. "But at this point, we are concerned about the animals."
Portsia Smith: 540/374-5419
Email: psmith@fredericksburg.com
