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CRAIG BASSEElizabeth V. Leinenbach played guardian angel to dozens that roamed the Tides Hotel & Bath Club Resort.
ST. PETERSBURG - The sight of three pregnant cats in the parking lot of the old Tides Hotel & Bath Club Resort touched the heart of Elizabeth V. Leinenbach.
"This could be a catastrophe," she thought before she set out on a course that turned her into a den mother for hundreds of nonpaying guests: the wild and free-spirited cats that lived in crawl spaces under the resort's buildings.
For three years, the former New York City advertising executive delivered food twice a day to the cats, she said in 1995. The next year, the cats lost their lease; bulldozers knocked down the resort buildings on North Redington Beach to make way for condominiums.
Ms. Leinenbach died of leukemia Wednesday (Dec. 17, 2003) at home under the care of Hospice of the Florida Suncoast. Her age was not announced. She came to North Redington Beach in 1985 from her native Long Island, N.Y., and later moved to St. Petersburg.
Each year, she trapped about 30 of the cats. After they were neutered and given the proper shots, they were returned to the beach.
"At least they couldn't reproduce, and they were happy there," she said.
When the beach resort still was going full blast, about 200 cats played and hunted there, danced and meowed, and made love and war with one another.
"They had such a nice life," said Ms. Leinenbach, known to area animal lovers as the Cat Lady. "Handouts from the restaurant kitchen. The whole beach to hunt on at night." One memory in particular made her smile: "They liked to go crabbing. In the morning, you'd see little holes on the beach where they'd dug up things to eat."
Survivors include a brother, Paul Leinenbach, Thousand Oaks, Calif.; her stepfather, Roserio Tacocca; a niece; and two nephews. E. James Reese Funeral Home & Crematory, Seminole, is handling arrangements.
- Information from Times files was used in this obituary.