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Saving Las Vegas' Tropicana cats
A couple of Las Vegas bartenders have teamed up to save the famed cats of the now closed Tropicana casino.
LAS VEGAS - For as long as anyone can remember, when employees pull up to the Tropicana casino in Las Vegas, the "casino cats" hear the sound of the engines and start running.
"Everybody on all different shifts will come in and feed them – they know everybody," says Kathy Love, a former Tropicana bartender who’s working to save the cats left behind by the casino’s closure.
As soon as Tropicana announced a closing date, Kathy and Pat Stubson, also a former Tropicana bartender, teamed up to trap the cats and find them a safe home before the building is torn down.
Just guests remain inside until the morning as the final night of gaming has concluded at the Tropicana on Tuesday, April 2, 2024, in Las Vegas. (L.E. Baskow/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
"Once there's gonna be a fence around here … I don't know where they're gonna go from here, and they're used to being fed," Love told FOX 5 in Las Vegas.
"I've fed them for at least 12 years, maybe 15," Stubson added.
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For the last two weeks, when their late-night shifts end around 2 a.m., they go back to the Tropicana and spend hours looking for the cats and picking up the traps they’ve left behind. They’ve caught eight cats so far – a few people from the hotel have been kind enough to serve as fosters – but they’re still looking for seven to 12 more, including a kitten and an elderly cat affectionately called "Grandpa."
Tropicana cats
"Grandpa's the oldest one that's got little bit of hairballs," Love explained. "We're trying to catch him. He's beautiful and he's the feisty one that is just eluding us right now."
Love and Stubson say the Tropicana cats are just as much part of the Tropicana family as anyone else who’s been impacted by the closure.
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Stubson has since built a "catio" in her yard to help house some of the Tropicana cats until they can find permanent homes.
The last night of gaming at Tropicana was April 2. The casino is being torn down to build a baseball stadium.