While Williamson County Animal Control (WCAC) officials continued to work hard yesterday to house the remaining 227 or so animals still alive after they were confiscated from dog breeder Jennifer Siliski’s kennel, the search for Siliski’s true identity deepened.

Animal control officials discounted rumors that the animals — mostly Maltese dogs — would be moved either to an unoccupied but heated building on the old Battle Ground Academy campus or the closed public library.

But they set up collection bins at all branches of Franklin National Bank, where supplies for the animals can be dropped, WCAC Assistant Director Debby Leddy said.

Meanwhile, various records show that the woman living and working at 2235 Bowman Road has multiple names.

For example, the house and in-home business are listed in the building codes office under “Melissa Redler’s” name, but the application gives Siliski’s telephone number.

Both Siliski and Redler have the same address in the Franklin telephone directory.

One person speculated that Siliski uses the name Melissa Redler as a case of personal protection.

“Siliski claims to have been forced to change her name as she was in hiding after receiving death threats from a former husband,” Christopher Vicari, owner of Chrisman Maltese in West Orange, N.J., wrote in an Internet posting.

At a Juvenile Court hearing Monday on the custody of Siliski’s four children, three ex-husbands were present, none with the last name of Redler.

However, a Bruce H. Redler filed a suit in Beaufort, S.C., on Aug. 4, 1994. Searches on Redler turned up a 49-year-old man by that name in Hilton Head Island, S.C., but he was unavailable for comment.

“She has used several names to register dogs in case privileges were taken away ... [so] she could still conduct her business,” Vicari said.

Criminal investigator John Brown Jr. of the Williamson County District Attorney’s Office still is investigating the significance of the different names.

“This situation exposes the shortcomings of the system and how someone can fall through the cracks,” Assistant District Attorney Bradon Boucek said.

Siliski seems to have used false names for years.

For example, Karen Burnham, Siliski’s kennel worker, has received many different pieces of mail at her Columbia address about “the American Kennel Club” and “letters about dogs” that seemed strange.

So she asked Siliski about it.

“I received mail at my house and had no idea how it got there,” Burnham said yesterday. “When I asked Jenny, she said, ‘Oh, yeah. That’s supposed to be for me.’”

Burnham said she told Siliski to remove her name, and nothing was ever said about it again.

“The other week, she got a couple of AKC certificates and just started putting names down [as the breeder]. I asked her who those people were because there was a crazy name in there and she said, ‘I don’t know ... they don’t exist.’”

Bob Grunow, director of business services for the Tennessee secretary of state, said the Maltese kennel raided by police on Jan. 22 had been incorporated under Burnham’s name since March 6, 2003.

Another search on Burnham reveals she and Siliski are listed as co-owners of a Columbia cattery, but Burnham told the Williamson County Review Appeal she had never “sold any dogs or cats” and had no knowledge about the cattery.

The contact person for that cattery is the same name as one of the four Siliski children removed from her care on Jan. 23 by the Department of Children’s Services.

Siliski even bought personalized tags for her blue 1990 Dodge van: MALTEZE.

Those tags expired in November and were registered under the same name of the person Hollybelle’s Kennel is named after — Siliski’s daughter.

The child, however, is severely disabled and cannot walk or talk, let alone drive.

She is 10 years old.

Staff Reporter Melissa N. Warren can be contacted at melissa@reviewappeal.com.