Animal protection officers return to an abandoned house outside of Ashcroft Tuesday hoping to rescue the stolen cats that remain inside.

While the effort to save the felines continues, so do RCMP and SPCA attempts to find a person of interest believed to have taken the animals from nearby homes.

Animal protection officer Kent Kokoska said only six of the cats are two years old or older. The rest are younger than six months, he said Monday.

And, given the amount of feces seen inside the home, Kokoska believes the cats — which numbered about 80 when they were discovered earlier this month — lived there about two weeks.

"I don't think they were living there that long," said Kokoska.

The question Kokoska and the police answered is who collected the cats, took them to the house and why. He said investigators have a person of interest in the case, but can't elaborate further.

Last year an Ashcroft couple pleaded guilty to one count each of causing an animal to be in distress when 20 cats were seized from a home.

They were fined $500 each, prohibited from owning more than one animal for the next three years and had to pay $870 in restitution.

The abandoned house where the cats were found stands on a plot of land belonging to Sundance Guest Ranch. Co-owner Cynthia Nichols said a group of family, friends and guests were out for a walk near the building on New Year's Eve when a little grey cat with a collar on scooted by.

A meow attracted the group's attention to the house. Someone peered inside and discovered the other cats, she said.

"They went in the house and found that someone was living in there. It was upsetting," she said.

Nichols said a cat carrier was found inside and the windows and doors, which were already boarded up, had more boards secured across them.

A propane heater and bed was also found.

Cases like this are not uncommon, said Kokoska. He's encountered what he calls animal hoarding in many communities. The activity is unhealthy for the cats and the hoarders as the living environment becomes filthy.

He said the 31 cats now in veterinay care at the Kamloops SPCA are afflicted with ear mites and eye infections.

"Hopefully it's just issues that aren't going to be life threatening to the cats," said Kokoska.

As to why someone would do this, Kokoska can only speculate.

"That (the reasoning) would be part of the ongoing investigation," he said.

Reid Webster, a clinical psychologist at Thompson Rivers University, said he's never heard of anything like the Ashcroft incident before.

He can't call it hoarding, as people typically hoard junk. Nor is it a case of obsessive-compulsive disorder, as that involves a ritual performed to ease anxiety, said Webster.

"Maybe it's someone who thinks they are rescuing cats," he said.

To help locals find any missing felines, a photo book showing the seized cats is available at a veterinary office in Cache Creek and pictures of the cats are posted online at spca.bc.ca.

jhewlett@kamloopsnews.ca