http://www.komotv.com/news/17561799.html


ROCHESTER, Wash. (AP) - A reclusive, independent woman whose home has been ruined by hundreds of rats she calls "friends" has agreed to move into an assisted living center, and officials were scurrying to find one for her Friday.

Michele Diller, 64, who had rebuffed efforts to help her by a wide range of agencies, changed her mind to regain possession of her cat, which was confiscated along with 11 caged animals - four severely malnourished snakes, five mice and two rats - Susanne Beauregard, Thurston County animal services director, said Friday.

"I told her I would let her have her cat back if she agreed to move," a relieved Beauregard told The Associated Press.

Diller told KOMO Television late Thursday she was ready to leave, but as of midday Friday she was still in the house and Beauregard still had the cat as agencies sought alternative housing and considered what to do about the rats, which have begun turning up in neighbors' yards on the outskirts of this southeast Thurston County town.

"Initially she was saying, `You can't hurt them, they're my friends,"' Beauregard said.

"I don't have a problem with any animal," Diller told the Seattle TV station.

Unlike the snakes, which were on the verge of death from starvation and hypothermia when they were taken to a veterinarian for recovery efforts Wednesday, the cat was plump and in good health except for a runny nose and eyes because of ammonia from the overpowering stench of rat urine and feces throughout the house, Beauregard said.

The county is likely to charge Diller with animal cruelty over the treatment of the snakes, two boa constrictors, a corn snake and a king snake, "if that's the only way to assure that she gets a mental health evaluation," the animal control director added.

The rats, apparently the progeny of a few that escaped after Diller bought them as food for the snakes, have gnawed through wiring, walls, cupboards and drawers, "so there's no lights or heat or