Stray Cats Enter Home, Attack Women, Boy

[kittykat05]

By Associated Press

Wed Mar 14, 6:36 PM

NORTH PLATTE, Neb. - Two stray cats attacked three people after they got into a house in North Platte. "I thought I had seen it all, but I have never seen anything like this," Chief of Police Martin Gutschenritter said Tuesday. A call for help Monday took animal control officer John Pettit to the home of Melissa Breva, Gutschenritter said. Breva told Pettit she had captured two cats in a bedroom.

"She said the cats had gotten into the house when the front door was open," Gutschenritter said, then attacked two women who were visiting Breva.

One, Wendy Holliday, suffered scratches, the chief said, and she was bitten on both ankles, both knees and on her left calf.

"She told the officer it happened when the two cats entered the residence and attacked her for no reason," Gutschenritter said.

The other woman, Rebecca Cheever, was bitten on the right calf.

After talking to the women, Pettit went to his truck for snares _ his "cat catchers."

Then he heard screaming from inside the house.

"When he ran back, he saw a young male with blood over his face," Gutschenritter said.

The cats had attacked a boy who had opened the bedroom door.

"He was bitten on his forehead, nose, left ear and right cheek," the chief said.

After some first aid from Pettit, the three were taken to Great Plains Regional Medical Center for more treatment.

When investigator John Stadler arrived and opened the bedroom door, "he saw a gray and white cat baring its teeth in attack mode," Gutschenritter said. "He shut the bedroom door and returned to his car for a dart gun."

Both cats were shot, tranquilized and taken to the animal shelter, where they were euthanized.

The bodies were sent to Lincoln for rabies checks, Gutschenritter said.

Authorities want to find out who owned the cats.

Under city ordinance, cats may run free if they don't become nuisances.

"I'm on the animal commission, and we've never seen anything like this," Gutschenritter said. "We have dealt with dog bites, but we've never had one with a cat."

[Serenity]

:eek: OMG! I've never heard of anything like that before. Crazy!

[Geminigirl]

Wow scary kittys!

[DragonSpirit]

Wow, thats crazy.. I kinda wish they wouldn't just kill them though. Its kinda harsh.

[rodentz]

poor cats. They had to have been abused by SOMEONE. unless they have rabbies.

[liv4pete]

it is sad that they had to put them down but no one would have been able to adopt them with that kind of behavior. some shelters just dont have room for animals that arent adoptable. sad but true.

[missy0ul0ve]

poor cats. They had to have been abused by SOMEONE. unless they have rabbies.

not always true.. i was attacked by a cat as i was trying to enter my own house in mount laurel. the cat's name was bandit. he did not have rabies and was far from abused. thing is, i've sat outside in the middle of the night and pet him many many times.

i ended up in the hospital and when asked i said it was a stray and said that i didn't see the cat because it all happened so fast even though i knew the owner's name. my reason for not giving up any information on the cat was simply so that it would not be taken from it's home, and would not be destroyed or anything of the sort.

since i said that the cat was a stray i went through all precautions, had all sorts of shots and honestly i am surprised as all h-ll that i ever touched a cat again. that was probably the worst pain i've ever felt. the rabbies shot is a very thick liquid like a petrolium (sp?) jelly texture, that going into your veins is h-ll. i had to have 2 shots in each area of a bite or scratch plus 4 more after the original hospital visit. cats can be very unpredictable. and it depends on the cat, their nature and their nurture, you cannot ostrisize nature and say it is only nurture that caused this. there are many factors that could have contribulted to this event.

[Geminigirl]

Oh I know my boyfriends parents cat Bubbles hates me (and everyone else) she will attack me, but thankfuly she is small and they keep her claws trimmed. She was never abused and is just a psyco kitty.

[missy0ul0ve]

agreed.. my aunt had a crazy kitty too def not abused. and def not an outside cat, had it's claws so the declawing prosess wasn't making him mean.. he was just a mean little kitty

[dbl120902]

My boyfriend's parents have a cat that will hiss and growl if you even look at her. The first time I went in to his house, she ran at my feet (luckily, his dog chased her off before she was able to do anything). The thing is, this cat bites, hisses, and growls at everybody in the whole house, even though they've had her since she was a kitten and she's probably about 10 years old now! They said that she's always been like that. Very strange...

[missy0ul0ve]

some cats are just no very nice... that's what happens when you have an independant pet.. some of them want to be independant as for randomly attacking someone, there has got to be a reason for it.. weather it's somehting in them, or something they sense and are scared of.. anything can be a factor... not only abuse

[dbl120902]

I personally think the reason that my boyfriend's parents' cat does it is because when she was little, and she would scratch or bite my bf's little sister, she would squirt the cat in the face with a water bottle. I honestly think that's what did it, but of course nobody else in that family agrees with me (I can't stand his little sister)...

[missy0ul0ve]

what is wrong with a spray bottle? idk i've never used one but i was just wondering what was wrong with it? i used to use a soup can full of coins and rattle it to make a noise whenever the cats would go somewhere they weren't posed to go, and they learend with that very well. i never used it for bites or scratches though. always used the no attention when that happens method, sometimes a slight yell... i would think that a spray bottle would work with them.. i never used it becuase my kitty likes water... shh he's not sure that he's really a cat.

[Rachy1412]

A spray bottle is a good way to train a dog not sure about a cat though! My cat hates water so if I did that to him it would certainly work, but I hate scaring my pets!

[1993Kat1993]

I hate scaring my pets too! But I do use water bottles for my dogs.. I don't even have the heart to call my dogs bad if they get in the garbage!

-~Ketlin

[missy0ul0ve]

to not discipline your pets is bad for them too... it was always hard for me to discipline my kitty vicious, but i had to, otherwise i would be hindering him. i'm sure you know some kids who are not well disciplined, they become brats and they are not really all that able to make it in the real world becuase they don't learn early on that there are consiquences to every action we partake(sp?) it.

[argranade]

WTF LOL!

Thats too funny, I would have wacked those d*m cats so hard they would have not known the the hec hit them lol, cats are not all that strong I mean ya crazy sharp claws but I think some people over react with stories.

[kittykat05]

There is nothing wrong with using a water bottle for training cats. I use them all the time, but I never spray them in the face, that is just plain mean. But if Smokey or Bandit (the kittens) are playing too rough, or jumping on tables, or scratching the furniture, then YEAH spray bottles are great!!

[dbl120902]

Let me elaborate on my earlier post: from what my bf and his parents have told me, she wouldn't just squirt the cat once and stop. She would chase the cat around the house and hose her down until she was drenched. That's why, I believe, the cat is so mean.

[DragonSpirit]

We have a cat (Tia) and when we found her, she was nice and stuff until we brought her home. If you ran up the stairs she'd attack your legs and if you held her she'd start growling. Now she's gotten used to us and doesn't attack us anymore though she'll still growl sometimes if she doesn't want to be held.

[kittykat05]

Let me elaborate on my earlier post: from what my bf and his parents have told me, she wouldn't just squirt the cat once and stop. She would chase the cat around the house and hose her down until she was drenched. That's why, I believe, the cat is so mean.

Ohh okay, that would make a bit more sense.

[missy0ul0ve]

WTF LOL!

Thats too funny, I would have wacked those d*m cats so hard they would have not known the the hec hit them lol, cats are not all that strong I mean ya crazy sharp claws but I think some people over react with stories.

i don't nessicerally agree that it doesn't cause so much of a problem... even if you "wack thoese d*m cats so hard" they may not be that strong but it could do serious damage.. i was attacked by a cat and spent the next three days in the hospital... but i've broken bones and went through surgury, had all sorts of variations in pain.. i think the surgury was worse, but the bones that broke i'd rather have.

the bite and scratch it was alright, but the after effect was horid! the shots in the hospital is what made it so bad. so when people make a big deal about the cat attack it may just be the problems that are caused from that cat attack and not the act itself.

[missy0ul0ve]

Let me elaborate on my earlier post: from what my bf and his parents have told me, she wouldn't just squirt the cat once and stop. She would chase the cat around the house and hose her down until she was drenched. That's why, I believe, the cat is so mean.

okay.. that makes more sense.. that could def make a cat mean... less it was my kitty... he would have enjoyed every second of it.