Update: Syracuse woman adopts all four cats.

East Syracuse, NY -- Atha Tehon Thiras had a successful career in Manhattan as an art director for a book company and had no children. When a massive heart attack struck the 86-year-old East Syracuse widow Feb. 15, her affairs were in order.

On the first page of her 20-page will, Thiras outlines a trust fund for her four cats: $50,000. The executors of her estate, an assistant and a niece, have been charged with finding a new home for Buff, Callie, Lady and Pepper — and their nest egg.

It’s been tougher than you’d think.

Thiras requested that the four cats stay together. An executor wants them to go to a house with no other animals. And, the survivors have found, they need to make sure any applicants aren’t just in it for the money.

Meanwhile, the clock is ticking. The cats have to be moved by June 4, which is when prospective buyers can tour Thiras’ condominium in Erie Village.

The estate’s executors, Linda Vulcano and Susan Tehon, say they are willing to split the quartet but keeping the cats together would be ideal. After all, it’s what their friend wanted.

“These were her children and it’s her money,” Tehon said. “That was her wish and she enjoyed the cats.”

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The money is to be used for food, litter, medical expenses, boarding during the caregiver’s vacation, cremation fees and insurance, according to the will. The caregiver may also be paid up to $1,200 a year and should expect an annual visit from Vulcano to make sure the animals are well cared for.

Thiras’ seven nieces and nephews, including Tehon, will share the rest of her $1.2 million estate. Stephen Thiras, Atha’s husband of 44 years, suffered from Alzheimer’s disease and died in 2005.

Vulcano, who spent three days a week at Thiras’ home as her personal assistant, has cared for the cats since February and is desperate to see them in a good home. She’s worried about someone stepping forward for the money and not the cats.

Tehon and Vulcano, of DeWitt, said they have been telling everyone they know about the animals. They have posted fliers online and in their neighborhoods. One early advertisement said the cats came with free vet, food and litter for life. “Do you have any idea how many crazy people called me and wanted to know what was in it for them and did not ask about the cats?” Vulcano said.

The fliers have been revised to say the four cats, one male and three females, are about 7 years old, have been fixed and come with “some financial assistance.” (Buff sometimes needs allergy shots and Pepper has an auto-immune disease requiring medicine three times a week.)

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Interested caregivers should expect an interview, will be observed interacting with the cats and must provide receipts for their care in order to be paid, Tehon and Vulcano said. “Nobody gets the money up front,” Vulcano said. “I couldn’t think of any other way to do it.”

Originally from Illinois, Thiras earned her master’s degree in fine arts from the University of Pennsylvania in 1949. She played piano and flute in college and painted. She worked as an artist in Europe, Greenwich Village and Cape Cod. She and her husband lived in Manhattan before moving to Syracuse about 12 years ago to be near her brother, who died in 2009.

For 32 years, Thiras worked as art director for Dial Books for Young Readers, a division of Penguin Group. It was in that role that she befriended some of the biggest names in children's books — including Edward Gorey and Maurice Sendak, the author of "Where the Wild Things Are," who died Tuesday.

Sendak and Thiras remained close friends, Vulcano said.

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Thousands of books fill the upstairs of Thiras’ condo. She was a lifelong student, her assistant and niece said, and subscribed to at least a dozen magazines including The New Yorker and ones about cats.

Her passions were varied and colorful. Above a pile of records of fado, a type of singing native to Portugal, sit three books: “Chinese Pottery and Porcelain,” “Gardens of Colonial Williamsburg” and “How to Render Roman Letter Forms.”

Among her books sit stuffed “Where the Wild Things Are” characters, a dozen Society of Illustrators medals, a group of miniature green and yellow John Deere tractors, and a manila folder stuffed with her favorite “Mutts” comic strips, torn from the newspaper.

Hundreds of children’s books, including a vast Sendak collection, line the walls of her studio. Those titles, along with her correspondence from Sendak and others, have been donated to the University of Pennsylvania archives, Tehon said.

Thiras discovered new things late in life. She got her driver’s license for the first time in her 70s; she bought a baby grand Steinway piano for the condo and played privately; and she began painting again, using the cats and her Native American pottery as subjects. She also liked to shop at Christmas Tree Shops in Mattydale, buying trinkets that brought her joy.

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Thiras and her husband struggled to have children. Their seven nieces and nephews visited them regularly in New York City.

When her husband moved to a nursing home a few years before his death, Thiras was lonely, Tehon said. Never having owned a pet, Thiras adopted two cats and fell in love. She soon adopted two more and the cats became the center of her life.

“She’d be sitting at the kitchen table having her breakfast and she’d have one cat on her lap and one on the table trying to get the milk out of her bowl,” Vulcano recalled.

Including the cats in her will was a priority, according to her lawyer, Scott Sherman, of Rye Brook. Sherman suggested a trust — something New York state began allowing in 1996 — so an executor could administer the money instead of an outright gift to a potential stranger.

Leaving money for the care of a pet is not unusual, Sherman said. “It happens more often than you would think, especially for people with no kids,” he said. Sherman recalls clients from New York City who set aside $500,000 for the future care of two large birds, he said.

Tehon even planned for her cats beyond this life. About two years before her death, Thiras selected a decorative urn that now holds her ashes.

As each cat dies, its ashes will be added to the urn. When they all are again reunited, the urn will be buried next to her husband in a Syracuse cemetery.

Tehon also designed her memorial. Family and friends will gather in her honor at an invitation-only dinner in late June at Wellington House in Fayetteville. Guests will enjoy wine and an exhibition of her art, Tehon said.

Tehon and Vulcano hope that by that time Buff, Callie, Lady and Pepper will be settled into a new home. “They’re starving for love, Vulcano said.

If you are interested in adopting Buff, Callie, Lady and Pepper, call Linda Vulcano at 446-8834. She will return messages.

Contact Emily Kulkus at ekulkus@syracuse.com or 470-2184.