It’s the Cats’ Meow : When a Feline Needs a Friend, There’s Always the Blue Bell Country Club

When Bertha Yergat died nearly three years ago, the 80-year-old former schoolteacher left behind a $1-million estate and some unusual instructions.

According to Yergat’s will, the proceeds from the sale of her residential property--about $300,000--were to be used to maintain a shelter in Laguna Beach known as the Blue Bell Country Club for Cats.

Yergat had spent much of her adult life building this slice of kitty heaven on Laguna Canyon Road where, at the time of her death in November, 1989, about 90 felines lounged in luxury, free to roam the expansive grounds and sip cool water from a pond specially stocked with goldfish.

After Yergat’s funeral service, friends and family members had gathered at Blue Bell a block down the road from the mortuary to pay a final tribute to her life’s work. Many, including her brother John Yergat, marveled at the well-manicured grounds and the countless number of felines in every shape and size that his sister had acquired over the years.

Two and a half years later, Yergat’s refuge for felines is still going strong. Today, there are even more cats living on the premises than before her death--nearly 150 at last count. Many are “retirees” whose owners have shelled out $1,000 a head so their pets can live out their golden years fishing, bird-watching, gopher-hunting and tree-climbing. It is a place where, according to their late benefactor’s motto, privileged felines can enjoy everything “except golf and tennis.”

Marie Rodman and her daughter Tina Garrett still run the shelter. They have turned an extra garage into a large bedroom chock full of cat condos. On a recent afternoon, dozens of cats snoozed contentedly in plushly carpeted boxes and in cat tepees.

“They love it,” said Rodman, housemother and director of Blue Bell. “You come in here at night and it’s wall-to-wall cats.”

At Blue Bell, every cat is an individual with his or her own name tag and biography. Yergat, a fiery woman who could call each of her cats by name, felt strongly that no cat should “go incognito.”

Many of these original heirs are still around. Remember Stevie, who, like his namesake, singer Stevie Wonder, is blind? His owner had sent him to Blue Bell when he was a kitten because he kept falling down the stairs. He is still a fixture, maneuvering effortlessly around obstacles in his path.

So is Lucy, the three-legged cat who was found abandoned in a drainpipe. And Spot, who has been known to drool while female visitors are petting him.

Romeo is still around too. However, he is experiencing a touch of depression these days so the staff gives him “mood enhancers” to perk him up.

Other legendary Blue Bell cats have since passed away.

Lacey, who supposedly walked all the way back to the shelter after her new owner was brutally murdered in Victorville, died recently of old age.

The way Rodman tells the story, Lacey was staying with her new adopted owner in a motel room when he was murdered several years ago. Five months after the killing, Lacey showed up at the Blue Bell shelter.

“As soon as I saw her, I knew who it was,” Rodman recalled. “Her paws were all nicked up and she had one big tooth left.”

Sylvester, Baby and Tiffany, a threesome of siblings who came to Blue Bell with a $60,000 endowment from their previous owners, have also died. Tiffany came down with cancer and had to have chemotherapy treatments before she was finally put to sleep.

However, Phil May, a member of Blue Bell’s board of directors, stressed that euthanasia is only used as a last resort.

“We don’t do convenience euthanasia. Like hospices, we give a lot of care to the dying,” May said. “If a cat is dying, we’ll see to it that that cat is talked to and brushed and on the day that we think that cat is leaving, we’ll spend the entire night with him.”

Almost as soon as one resident dies, there is a new feline guest to take his place.

Stuffing, an orangish, longhaired cat, is one such new addition. She was sent to Blue Bell from New York with four other cats, along with $5,000 for their upkeep.

“Their owners had just accumulated too many cats,” May said. “They had rescued them from the streets of Manhattan, and the man drove them out here.”

The Blue Bell Foundation relies heavily on private donations to run the shelter. Recently, one animal lover died and left $20,000 to the cat home.

But with operating costs of about $6,000 a month, Blue Bell operators said they are starting to feel the pinch.

After all, the felines consume an average of 240 cans of wet food and 18 pounds of dry food and use up about 500 pounds of kitty litter every two weeks.

“Like all the other charities, we’re having a hard time,” said Susan Hamil, who handles finances for the Blue Bell Foundation. “We’ve had to dip into our principal, and we can’t go on doing that forever.”