THURSTON COUNTY, Wash. -- A 64-year-old woman is being held without bail, accused in a horrific animal cruelty case.

Judith Ann Lawson faces 22 counts of animal cruelty and five years in prison. The alleged victims are 22 purebred Persian cats.

Officials initially thought there were just 20 cats. One reason: the hair of two of the cats were so intertwined that everyone thought the matted being was just one cat, until they saw two heads.

There was even a show cat -- a prized Persian worth $1,500. Prosecutors say its show days turned into hell in Lawson's garage a few years ago.

Animal control says the 22 Persians were warehoused, 15 in the garage and seven in another room. They lived in wire cares, where food was thrown in atop the uncleaned feces.

When one of the cats was picked up, a thick layer of matted fur just ripped right off of its body.

It all happened in an upscale neighborhood. The scene was in such bad shape that animal rescue workers had to wear respirators to enter the urine-stenched property and once inside, they saw that even fleas were trying flee.

"There were flies and fleas pounding at the window, trying to get out," said animal control officer Susanne Beauregard.

Investigators say they found cat after cat with hair, feces and urine all matted together.

Some of the cats were taken to the South Bay Veterinary Clinic, where the animals lost inches of matted hair. A bag full of hair from just four of the cats weighted 2 pounds and 15.5 ounces.

Each of the cats is expected to survive, but it make take a year before all the fur grows back. Meanwhile each cat is being handled extremely carefully.

"Each cat must be treated compassionately but as if it were a crime scene of its own," said Beauregard.

Prosecutors on Friday said they have reason to believe this same horror may have happened seven years ago in Bellevue, where Lawson lived at the time.

They said Lawson's former neighbors called and said when she moved out of her Bellevue home, its floor and walls had to be ripped out because they were contaminated with cat urine and feces.