Yet another perfectly perfect grim Key West tale: the Key West Cat Lady loses her home in a bad real estate development deal

Today's post about a truly sad situation with a Key West friend of mine, was featured in Key West the Newspaper (thebluepaper.com), which is published by my Key West friends Arnaud and Naja Girard. 

https://thebluepaper.com/key-west-cat-lady-loses-her-house/

Further below is the Facebook link to the article, with three comments I selected, from many comments, most of which were made by people who knew nothing of what set up the truly said story. The blue paper video does not reveal it, and the reader comments went all over the board, perhaps a good study in human psychology. Same happened at the blue paper website. 

Key West the Newspaper (The Blue Paper)

June 28 at 3:43 PM · 

For years Jane Isherwood, Key West's most famous "Cat Lady," has been fighting a losing battle with the city, the banks, the animal shelter and her all-powerful next-door neighbor Commissioner...

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THEBLUEPAPER.COM

KEY WEST CAT LADY LOSES HER HOUSE

KEY WEST CAT LADY LOSES HER HOUSE Jun 282019   Share on FacebookShare on Twitter Facebook CommentsI agree to my Facebook data being stored and used as per Privacy PolicyArnaud and Naja GirardArnaud and Naja Girard, publishers and editors of the new, digital, Key West the Newspaper (The Blue Paper) ...

114Stephen Braddock, Thomas C Milone and 112 others

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Sloan Bashinsky

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  Sloan Bashinsky When I met Jan Isherwood in 2007 and we started becoming friends, She told me the home she lived in, with all her cats, was in a trust of some kind, for her. Not long after, she said she wanted to borrow money to develop the property, or properties. I think there were two real estate lots, but for sure there was the home she lived in with the cats. I told her that I used to do real estate law and I had represented real estate companies and building contractors, and she didn't know anything about developing real estate and to not do it and to let the property keep appreciating and live there. When Jan lamented to me in perhaps 2016, what had happened, I told her that was really hard for me to hear, because I had tried my best to talk her out of doing it. She said she understood where I was coming from. I was homeless several times in Key West, and I know how awful that is for a man. It's a lot worse for a woman. I hope Jan is spared that.
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    Deb Pansier Sloan Bashinsky I know a few people who have lost their homes due to not having tge mental facilities to protect themselves nor the family or friends to protect them from themselves
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  Richard Boettger
  

  Only read the following if you want to feel LESS bad about Jan's fate. I interceded with banks to save four homes. The first three had kids under ten. Jan had her cats. The others kept their homes. Jan didn't. While working with her she complained a lot about her well-off brother, who had spent months helping her out. She got her homes by taking good care of elderly men, which she did well. She also took reasonable care of her cats, though I couldn't get her to do the yearly paperwork to maintain her 501c3 status for her cat org. The point: Jan had a good heart for cats, but it was amazing she kept it together in the world of real estate as long as she did. Her brother and I realized we were helpless.

Sloan Bashinsky

Richard Boettger I recall telling Key West real estate developer consultant Jim Hendrick of Jan's plans to borrow money and develop the house and land. Jim said he understood the property was in a trust and Jan could not do it. I said I thought she was doing it. If there was a trust, then the trustee(s) would have had to approve Jan's plan and sign the loan documents, I think. Perhaps that needs looking into. Perhaps Jan has legal relief against the trustee(s)?

After publishing all of that a bit ago, I called Arnaud Girard and heard the backstory of how the loan came about, which I told him I felt needs to be published at the blue paper. A perfectly perfect grim tale from the Key West crypt. The trustee was the Key West Cat Lady, the beneficiary of the trust was a favorite cat of a man who had died. After the favorite and many other cats died, the trustee would become the beneficiary. Arnaud said, what banker  would loan $850,000 [my recollection of the number] to the Key West Cat Lady? 

sloanbashinsky@yahoo.com