Cats Up For Adoption After Being Rescued From New Kensington Home

NEW KENSINGTON (KDKA) -- Humane agents are caring for more than a dozen cats that were rescued from a home in New Kensington.

Police arrested a man after his mother was found deceased in a duct-taped shut room inside her home in August.

Officials Police also found 19 live cats, one dead cat, and one dead dog on the property.

Seventeen of those cats are still at Frankie's Friends Rescue in New Kensington. Two of the cats had to have their teeth removed.

A humane officer for the organization said it's been a long road to recovery since they were rescued and now most of them are ready for a forever home.

"They were underweight," Debbie Urmann from Frankie's Friends said. "A couple of cats had dental disease that needed to be treated. They needed to have their shots."

The animals had no food or clean water. Then when authorities opened the windows, a swarm of bugs was unleashed on the neighborhood.

"There were empty cat food bowls, water bowls, garbage and was an extremely pungent odor," Urmann said.

Robert Hawk, 47, lived with the cats and his deceased mother, 69-year old Marcia Smock.

Police did a welfare check and found Marcia dead inside a room that had the door and vents duct-taped shut.

Hawk told police he attempted to revive his mother but was unable. That's when he sealed the room.

He never informed the Social Security Administration about his mother's death and instead started cashing her checks, claiming he had to pay the bills.

That is when police discovered the cats, who are doing much better now.

Urmann said the cats are gaining weight and are getting much more comfortable around people.

Hawk is free on his own recognizance but faces 62 charges including abuse of a corpse, felony theft, aggravated cruelty to animals and dozens of neglect of animals charges.

Anyone who is interested in adopting a cat can click here, here or call 724-889-7011.