Today, the life that Kapa‘a resident Wendy Rausch has cherished for nearly 18 years comes to an end. She faces a June 1 deadline to move out of a modest rental home by Kapa‘a Beach Park she says has brought
Today, the life that Kapa‘a resident Wendy Rausch has cherished for nearly 18 years comes to an end.
She faces a June 1 deadline to move out of a modest rental home by Kapa‘a Beach Park she says has brought her unparalleled happiness.
Living at the home has allowed her to care for and love more than 100 cats and dogs and three pigs over nearly two decades, evolve spiritually, accept new challenges in life, and embrace island culture.
Rausch’s departure also marks the passing of a way of life on Kaua‘i that was commonplace 20 years ago but that many people feel is rapidly vanishing — that of a slow-paced, rural lifestyle.
For Rausch, that lifestyle translated into low rents, talk-story time with neighbors and friends, leisure time in a front yard looking out to sky-blue ocean water, and time for her pets.
Rausch took pride in decorating the eaves of the three-bedroom, one-bathroom home, first with rare glass fishnet balls, and then more-common plastic fishnet balls.
The roof leaks and the walls of the kitchen and the bathrooms are nearly caving in, but she doesn’t mind, because she loves her surroundings.
Parts of the fence surrounding her home are shored up by sheets of corrugated tin.
Clothes flap from a clothesline located on the back of the property, on which is found another home.
On certain nights, the smell of pakalolo floats in the air from the adjoining county park, home to vagrants at times.
A life-size wooden tiki god stands guard at the entry of a nearby home.
Spiritual groups gather in circles on the beach in front of her home, and launch into chants.
The glee of frolicking children can be heard from the Kauai Independent Daycare Services (KIDS) school nearby. The school is headed by Phyllis Kunimura, a former first lady of Kaua‘i and wife of late Mayor Tony Kunimura.
Rausch said she would have missed out on all these experiences had she not decided to move into her home nearly 18 years ago.
“What I tried to personify (in living in and decorating her home) is what you would expect on a sleeping little island,” Rausch said in an interview with The Garden Island. “Other people see it that way. People are taking pictures.”
Rausch said she hopes to stay at the house until June 15, to allow her more time in which to find another rental home, and to find homes for 25 remaining cats and Kipu, a beloved pig left in her care by hunters when it was 5 1/2 weeks old.
Today, Kipu is 13 years old, and weighs up to 450 pounds.
Rausch said she recently placed an advertisement in The Garden Island to try to find Kipu a new home, preferably one with a large yard in which he can romp.
Rausch is looking for a new rental home in Wailua Homesteads, but feels finding a home for her pets will be a challenge.
“Everybody that is renting is not allowing pets,” Rausch said. “That part of my life of having pets seems to be over.”
The home she has lived in is owned by a family on O‘ahu, and now some family members apparently want to rent the building for more, to take advantage of the island’s rental boom.
Rausch said she was notified of the pending eviction after coming home from her job at the National Tropical Botanical Garden in Lawa‘i on April 15.
She has worked at the site for seven years, and is currently employed as a tour interpreter.
Rausch lived on O‘ahu from 1970 to 1986, during which she was manager of a jewelry gallery and fine-arts store at the Kahala Hilton.
Rausch said she moved to Kaua‘i to get away from city living. She eventually settled into the home by Kapa‘a Beach Park and shared it with a friend, Misami Kuwamura.
Rausch said her arrival was met with skepticism by some new-found friends on Kaua‘i who wondered how a city person could adjust to living in a rural community.
Rausch made the adjustments, and one of the first things she did to put her stamp on her new surroundings was to decorate the roofline with fishball nets. Today, more than 100 of the ball nets hang from the eves.
Her interest in cats was sparked in 1989, as feral cats were dumped in her yard.
During Hurricane ‘Iniki in 1992, her home provided shelter for 37 cats, three dogs and Kipu. Once Rausch determined her pets were safe and secure in the house, she spent the duration of the hurricane at a friend’s house in Kapahi.
The house survived the lashing winds and heavy storms, but ocean waters surged into her home from the nearby bay, creating a pond inside the living room.
Eventually, the water was removed, and Rausch and her pets moved back into the house.
To her surprise, her colony of pets grew as her home drew stray cats who had lost their homes during the destruction of ‘Iniki.
She said she felt she couldn’t turn them away. “This is the front line. I lived in a place where I saw hungry strays,” she said.
During the many years she has lived in the house, she has taken care of 100 pets, mostly cats, and a few dogs. All were spayed or neutered either by Dr. Patrick Ahana of Kapa‘a, or by personnel from the Kauai Humane Society.
Rausch took care of Kipu and two other pigs, but the other two died. She cherishes her remaining pig, leaving apples and other treats on a plate outside her doorway for Kipu.
“He rarely gets sick. The only time he got sick was in 1995, when he ate the stuffing in a stuffed animal and became constipated,” Rausch said.
Rausch said she has never spent much time on the beach in front of her home, partly because of vagrants. Over the years she has lived at the home, Rausch said she has had to tolerate raucous noise from beachgoers who drink at beach areas by her home at night.
She said living at the beach house was life-altering. The home not only provided her a place where she could care for and give love to animals, but allowed her to evolve as a person and accept and embrace different ideas, a new lifestyle and culture.
“Living here was more than just being with the animals,” Rausch said. “The animals were a part of a slow-paced lifestyle I strived to attain.”
Anyone able to help Rausch should call her at 822-0067.
Staff Writer Lester Chang may be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 225) or lchang@pulitzer.net.
