Curious Louisiana finds the story behind Janice the Cat Lady

When Lana Henry of Lafayette went to New Iberia’s City Park in April, she couldn’t help but notice a lovely swing with a metal cat and a plaque that reads, “Janice, the Cat Lady, 1960-2017.” Henry said she was struck by the unusual memorial and wondered what the story might be.

“I’m one of those people who’s into memorials of all kinds,” she said last week. “I like poking around cemeteries. I like things people do to celebrate people’s memories. When I saw the swing, I thought, ‘Oh I wonder who this is.'”

To answer Henry’s question, my initial call went to my all-things-New-Iberia expert Suzy Kimball. She was not familiar with the swing, but five minutes later, in true New Iberia fashion, she texted me the full story and a list of people to speak with to learn the story firsthand.

Janice the Cat Lady was, in fact, Janice Guidry Fuchs. She grew up in a large, loving family in Opelousas.

When her husband Jeff Fuchs began to tell me about his wife, his voice cracked. The two were married for 33 years and met on Janice’s first day of college.

“I was at a fraternity party,” he said. “She and a friend passed by while I was standing on the steps. I looked at my friend and said, ‘Hmm. She’s got potential.'” 

Years later, when the frat house on the University of Louisiana at Lafayette’s campus was being torn down, the couple went back and snagged a few bricks from the steps where they first met.

After the two were married, they moved to New Iberia, where they lived in an old Victorian home on Main Street. It was “the very kind of place you’d picture a cat lady living,” he said.

According to her husband, Janice Fuchs became known for her dedication to cats.

“She used to go to yoga classes at the park, (where) she would go out and see these stray cats,” he said. “I used to tell her that she needed a hobby — and she got a crusade.”

She recruited others, mainly women, to help her feed, catch, spay and neuter the feral cats. She started a nonprofit called SNIP, or Spay Neuter Iberia Project, which is still primarily run by her friend Katherine Melancon. It could use some volunteers, Jeff Fuchs added.

“They found homes for those cats. She went out and inspected homes like I did as a social worker making sure they were OK for a baby,” Fuchs said. “We had an empty rental unit at our house in New Iberia which she used as our cat rescue headquarters. She would battle ringworms. She would be up till all hours.”

Wilda Schommer, Janice Fuch’s first cousin, had the idea and was responsible for the swing in New Iberia.

“Janice was the most wonderful woman in the world,” Schommer said. “We thought it would be nice to put a swing near where she fed the cats in the park.”

Schommer, who lives in Arizona and New Hampshire, said even after Janice Fuchs was diagnosed with one of the least aggressive kinds of brain tumor in 2010, she kept tending to the feral cats of New Iberia.

Jeff Fuchs said the cancer already advanced before she realized she had a problem, and she lived for seven years after the diagnosis.

“For the longest, that didn’t hold her down,” Schommer said. “She was there every day, taking the cats. Kathy Melancon helped her so much and is still at it.”

Schommer worked with the parks to get permission to build the swing. The family planted flowers and trees around the swing. She contracted with Doyle Boudreaux to make the cat for the top of the swing.

“And it has a little snip on its ear — it’s just perfect,” Schommer said.

Jeff Fuchs credits Schommer with everything except the plaque.

“Wilda and Janice were close,” he said. “But I did the plaque — and that’s why it says ‘Janice the Cat Lady.’ With a last name like Fuchs, it was prime for vandalism.” 

He began to tell me about his wife’s last days and the two cats she left him.

“She had a cat that could not be torn away from her bed when she was dying,” he said. “That cat was perfectly normal until the day she died. He couldn’t function after that. He died of a broken heart four months later. I was force-feeding him.”

Six years later, Jeff Fuchs is still caring for “one last cat” that Janice Fuchs called “Buddy,” who is in kidney failure. 

“I feel like Buddy is a little bit of Janice to keep me company,” he said. “I take him in twice a week for treatment. I won’t take an overnight trip. I barely leave the house because of Buddy.”

The two are tight, but it wasn’t always that way.

“Buddy didn’t accept me for seven years,” he said. “But right before Janice died, he warmed up to me. I have a feeling he knew it was going to be just the two of us one day. And now, 15 years later, he’s still here. He got me through my darkest days. I had a reason to get up every day — I had to take care of him.”

He said when his wife was dying, she asked for her ashes to be buried in their backyard where they had buried cats through the years.

“I buried a small urn with some of her ashes and some of the bricks we got from the steps where we met,” Jeff Fuchs said. “When I sold the house, the man who bought it promised me he would tend to the little memorial there in our yard.”

Even now, six years after her death, Jeff Fuchs says it still hurts. He still visits his late wife’s family on weekends.

“Sometimes I still fall to pieces,” he said. “It’s been six years and I still talk about her in every conversation.” 

He moved to Lafayette after his wife’s death, and while he’s glad others enjoy the swing in her memory, he’s just not able to go there yet.

“She’s the kind of person you can’t get out of your heart,” Jeff Fuchs said of his late wife, Janice the Cat Lady.

Curious Louisiana is a community-driven reporting project that connects readers to our newsrooms’ resources to dig, research and find answers about the Pelican State. Bottom line: If you’ve got a question about something Louisiana-centric, ask us at curiouslouisiana@theadvocate.com.