Dog breeder Jennifer Siliski apparently has a hard time keeping track of her different names and numbers.
As the Williamson County Review Appeal delved further into the conditions of the Siliski house, records of zoning applications, lawsuits and e-mail forum complaints came to light against the woman living at 2235 Bowman Road.
Property records show the name of the owner of that address, however, is not Jennifer Siliski.
It is Melissa H. Redler.
After 230 animals were removed on Jan. 22 from Hollybelle’s Maltese, the kennel Siliski operated out of her home, the state Department of Children’s Services found the living conditions to be an “imminent risk” to Siliski’s four children. DCS took them into state’s custody on Jan. 23, said Communications Director Carla Aaron.
The conditions of the Siliski house are not a new subject to Lee Sanders, director of codes compliance for Williamson County.
Sanders says his department has logged several complaints over the years against the Siliski home.
“Every time I went to the house (for a complaint), I spoke with a Melissa H. Redler,” he said Tuesday. “That’s who the property is listed under and that’s the name on the zoning application, too.
“On the application for the home occupation zoning permit, she wrote ‘Jennifer,’ crossed it out and finished with ‘Melissa Redler.’ At the bottom, she signed it with what looks like any name, lots of loops. It starts with a J, though, and the second name looks like S-something.”
In the white pages of the Franklin telephone directory, 2235 Bowman Road is the address of both Jennifer Siliski and Melissa H. Redler, although the phone number listings are different.
Nonetheless, the phone number “Melissa Redler” listed on that zoning application is not hers.
It is Jennifer Siliski’s.
Sanders remembers the house well, regardless of the confusing phone listings. He said there was never any violation of the home occupation regulations at the Siliski home.
“There’s nothing in the zoning code about how residential houses should smell, nothing to measure stink, and there’s no zoning code about how many residential animals you can have,” Sanders said.
“Home occupation rules state that you are limited to no more than 25 percent floor space for the business, no more than one outside employee, you can’t have the business outside and you can’t change the appearance of the house.”
According to testimony at the 4-1/2-hour Monday hearing, several witnesses said it appeared that dog hair, dog beds, feces, urine and medical supplies were scattered throughout the entire house, and not just in the two rooms where the stacked cages of animals were found.
“There was standing urine, feces on the wall of the master bedroom and all through the house, syringes on the countertop and an IV bag on the countertop,” said John Brown Jr., a district attorney’s criminal investigator who served the warrant at the Siliski home.
Siliski had hired two kennel workers to clean the mess on weekends and paid them in cash, Brown testified Monday. That appears to fly in the face of the county’s one-outside-employee rule for home businesses.
Meanwhile, the search for the true identity of the dog breeder continues to turn up even more names.
On InfoDog, an advertising service for dog breeders, Melissa Redler is listed as the owner. Directly below, Jenny “Solinksi” is listed as the breeder.
According to a post on the discussion forum at malteseonly.com, several Hollybelle’s customers have rechecked their American Kennel Club registration papers and noticed the breeder’s name and Siliski’s do not match.
“Both of my Malts have Hollybelles’ pedigree, but the breeder on [one dog’s] papers is Cindy Broadway and the breeders on [the other dog’s] papers is Eddy and Molly Henyon which lists the same address as Jennifer’s,” a woman in California posted on the Maltese Only Web site. In court documents, “Redler’s” middle name is “Henya.”
Another post says, “I just checked [my dog’s] papers and someone by the name of Cindy Broadway is listed as the breeder and Julie Burnham is listed as the litter owner. I remember when I first contacted Jenny ... she told me [Karen Burnham] was the name of the girl who helps with ... her disabled daughter.”
Strangely enough, that message was posted by someone who called herself Karen Burnham as well.
“Tonight I did a search on the Internet for Siliski, and there is a cattery that she and Karen Burnham own together. When I could not find Jenny, I tried to find Cindy Broadway or Julie Burnham at the address listed on [my dog’s] papers and there was no listing. I also checked with Maltese Magazine and [they] had not heard of either of them.”
Further searches into a cattery and the numerous names turned up a Web site, ragbabies.com. The Web site is currently “under construction” and only allowed a user to sign the guest book.
The Cyber Pet site Ragbabies Ragdolls Cattery as a featured breeder. The contact is Eddy Whitaker at 2235 Bowman Road in Franklin.
That’s Siliski’s home address and the same last name as one of Siliski’s ex-husbands and father of her two boys, ages 15 and 13. “Eddy Whitaker’s” contact number is the same listing as Jennifer Siliski, once married to Gilbert A. Whitaker Jr. of Murfreesboro. Her other ex-husbands are Michael Pruitt of Berry Hill and Alan Siliski of Nashville.
According to the malteseonly.com
Web site, Christopher Vicari, owner of Chrisman Maltese in West Orange, N.J., claims in a posting that “Jennifer’s real name is Melissa Redler. She claims to have been forced to change her name as she was in hiding after receiving death threats from a former husband.”