Tropicana Employees in Vegas Attempt to Rescue Resident Cats Before Building is Demolished

The Tropicana is the third oldest hotel on the Las Vegas strip and it has been home to guests like Frank Sinatra, Elizabeth Taylor and Sammy Davis Jr for the past 67 years. In the 1971 James Bond movie Diamonds are Forever Agent 007 stayed in a plush suite at the hotel. With the doors of this iconic Vegas landmark chained shut and the hotel and casino set to be demolished in October to make way for a major league baseball stadium some employees are scrambling to remove some items from the hotel grounds.

And these items are the resident cats who have made the grounds of the Tropicana their home.

Fox5Vegas reports, "Kathy Love and Pat Stubson, who were both bartenders at the hotel, took on the task of trapping the cats and moving them to a safe home before the building comes down."

“Everybody, from housekeeping to PBX to a lot of the bartenders, everybody on all different shifts will come in and feed them, and they know everybody. When you drive up, they know the sound of your car, and they’ll come running,” said Love.

Related: Kitties Looking for Homes After Being Saved From Feral Cat Colony Are Capturing Hearts

The pair are still trying to find for 7 to 12 more cats, including a kitten and an elderly cat named Grandpa. Stubson even built a catio in her yard to house the cats until they find homes.

What wonderful people to go out of their way to save these cats. If you've ever been to Vegas, you've probably seen a lot of cats roaming the streets, including the famous Las Vegas strip. It's pretty interesting to learn how this all came about.

Why Are There So Many Feral Cats on the Vegas Strip?

There are an estimated 300,000 free-roaming cats on the Las Vegas strip. Keith Williams, director of Community Cat Coalition of Clark County, or C5 is the volunteer supervisor of the city and county's feral cat colony registration program.

The Las Vegas Review Journal interviewed Williams in 2012 who said there are roughly 482 registered cat colonies in the valley.

The article also explains how all of this may have started. Cathy Henson, a former Hacienda employee and a volunteer for local cat organizations who has been caring for these cats since the 1970s, explained that back in the day the hotel had a problem with field rats. So one day the owner's wife went to the shelter and got a bunch of stray cats. She brought them back and released them on the grounds.

"There were times when the cats would fall through the ceilings into the cashier's cage," Henson remembers.

Amazing.

Here's hoping these Tropicana cats find forever homes after they are trapped and spayed or neutered.

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