Grant has repeatedly flouted county law, Seaman says, by failing to get her animals licensed or contain the cats until there was a complaint. She has refused to set a limit on the number of cats she'll take in, Seaman say.

"She was unwilling to talk about anything less than every single animal on her property, " says Seaman, who adds county officials may have been amenable to allowing 50 or 100 animals on the property if Grant had tried to compromise.

So, how does someone end up with 200 cats ? For Grant, it began when she rescued six kittens from an abandoned building in the mid-1990s. She adopted them adding them to the four cats she already had at home. When South Daytona official told her in 1998 that she couldn't keep 10 cats in her city home, she moved to Pierson and started taking in more unwanted cats. She says they are all spayed and neutered.

Often, people who heard about "Pierson's cat lady" showed up at her home unannounced, leaving boxes of kittens at her gate near the road and driving away.

"If somebody told me I would have 200 cats one day. I would have thought they were nuts, " she says, "but I just can't say no."

To animal lovers, Grant is a hero. "When I went out there, the cats appeared to be in good health, " says Tom MacPhail, a veterinarian at DeLand Animal Hospital. "We support her and - what she's trying to do".

Others are concerned she's in over her head. "We worry about Kristy. She's trying to do what's right. But we also told her that it's probably in her best interest to find homes for them." Says Ted Hopper, a neighbor of Grant.

Grant says she is willing to make any sacrifice to keep her cats - even if it means moving .

"They are my children, and you wouldn't just let somebody take your kids away, " she says. "This is their home."