• 'Something's going to happen to a human': Police hunt serial cat killer

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    By Ida Siegal, NBCNewYork.com

    Authorities are looking for the person who fatally shot and beat a pet cat in the lower Hudson River Valley in New York last month, and officials say the suspect may be the same individual who has killed three other cats near the area since July.

    Officials in Putnam County say a Patterson, N.Y, man called the local Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Feb. 7 and said his cat appeared to have been shot while it was outside.

    Authorities found the 7-month-old black and brown female Calico cat, named "Blackfoot," with a neck wound; the feline also appeared to be paralyzed from its mid-section to its hind paws.

    The cat was rushed to a nearby hospital, where veterinarians conducted an X-ray and found a metal projectile embedded in part of the animal's spine. Animal control officers said the suspect may have used a high-powered BB gun or a low-caliber rifle to fire the projectile at the cat.

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    Veterinarians also found a spinal fracture that they believe was caused by blunt force trauma.

    "I believe the person called her over, the shot her in the back, then kicked her," said Blackfoot's owner Robert Kitts, who found her bleeding outside his home last week.

    The cat remained under veterinary care at the Westchester Animal Hospital until it died Feb. 11 due to progressive paralysis, authorities said.

    Officials are looking into whether the latest case of cat abuse may be connected to a severed cat head found staged in August in an intersection half a mile from where Blackfoot was shot. Authorities are also investigating if those incidents are connected to two other cat beheadings in July several miles away in the Connecticut towns of Oxford and Fairfield.

    "We responded to a call not quite half a mile from here where we found a decapitated cat's head that was placed in the middle of the road," said Ken Ross of the Putnam County SPCA. "That took place within a month of two cats that were found nearby in Connecticut in the same condition."

    Authorities are concerned that the cat killer could move to more serious crimes.

    "It's moving into the realm of -- something's going to happen to a human," said Ross. "Something's going to be done to a human because this person no longer has the control to hold back."

    Anyone with information about animal abuse in the area is asked to call (845) 520-6915 or visit www.spcaputnam.org.

  • Drifter who skinned cat, wore its tail sentenced to two years in prison

    Phoenix Police Dept.

    Russell Christopher Hofstad, 25, was sentenced to two years in prison and four years probation over animal cruelty and burglary charges.

    By NBC News wire services

    PHOENIX -- An Arizona drifter who skinned a cat and wore its tail and innards around his neck was sentenced to two years in prison on Wednesday.

    An Arizona Superior Court judge also sentenced Russell Christopher Hofstad, 25, to four years probation on his release, the Maricopa County Attorney's office said.

    Hofstad pleaded no contest last month to a felony animal cruelty charge and guilty to a burglary charge. According to the criminal complaint, police arrested Hofstad in January after he broke into a Phoenix warehouse used as a music venue.

    Cops: Man skinned and ate cat, used tail as necklace

    Officers found the skinned and gutted remains of a cat inside, and Hofstad wearing the cat's tail and a piece of its "internals" around his neck on a rope, with his face painted. Police said he had eaten parts of the cat, while some of its other internal organs were kept in a cooler.


    Hofstad told police he had recently been released from jail and had nowhere to live. He said he had not eaten in a few days, so he hit the cat with a stick and then stabbed it.

    He planned to stuff the animal and save the skeleton "for a decoration for a party."

    Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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  • To get home, cat walks 6 miles in 3 days

    Barbara Oliphant snuggles with Wollie, who walked six miles over three days to get home.

    By Andrew Mach

    Officials at a New Hampshire animal shelter say they can’t figure out how a black cat walked six miles in three days to find his way back home, but the cat’s owner has one word for it.

    “It’s a miracle. I really believe that it’s a miracle,” Barbara Oliphant said.

    Oliphant, 80, was recently reunited with her wayward kitty, Wollie, after initially giving him away to the Animal Rescue League in Bedford, N.H.

    When Oliphant first met Wollie, he was wandering around her house last summer as a stray. 

    “I felt sorry for it because it was thin, it wasn’t being fed,” she said. So she took him in. 

    Soon, however, Barbara’s 80-year-old husband, George, was hospitalized with a stroke, and Oliphant said she could no longer give the cat enough attention. So she turned him over to the shelter, which is located miles from her home.

    When George began getting better, the Oliphants' daughter secretly adopted Wollie back, but before she could pick the cat up, he escaped in the shelter's parking lot.

    Three and a half days later, Barbara spotted the cat crossing a road leading up to her house.

    “I said, ‘That’s Wollie.’ I just knew it was him,” she said. “He was so exhausted so tired, so hungry.”

    Dr. Emily Weiss, vice president of shelter research and development for the ASPCA, said incidents as extreme as Wollie’s are quite rare, but not surprising.

    “Generally speaking, cats have amazing smell and hearing, so when they’re lost they look for clues to pick up a slight scent or sound and go to what’s familiar for them.”

     “This cat obviously knew where his home was and wanted to get back there as soon as he possibly could,” Laura Montenegro, spokesperson for the Animal Rescue League of New Hampshire, told WMUR 9.

    The Oliphants said they now plan to keep Wollie for good.

    “What makes this story so remarkable is that this cat was motivated to come home based on the bond that it shares with his owners," said Weiss. "And that’s pretty amazing.” 

    More: Internet brings dog to devoted adoptive owner, 650 miles away  
    Twitter helps find dog that took train to Dublin
    Cat born with backward legs healing well after rare surgery  

  • Cat plunges 19 stories from high-rise, and walks away

    Sugar the cat, left, survived a 19-story fall from her owner's home in Boston, center. At right is the spot where she landed.

    By Miranda Leitsinger, Staff Writer, NBC News

    Sugar, a white furry cat who is deaf, plunged 19 floors from a window in a high-rise building in Boston and – aided by her fall into a tiny mulch patch and the feline’s ability to glide a la the "flying squirrel" – lived to walk another day, animal rescue officials say.

    A woman in the West End building said she saw a “white streak” go by her window early Wednesday afternoon and then saw Sugar after she hit the ground, said Mike Brammer, assistant manager of the animal rescue services department at the Animal Rescue League of Boston.

    “You could see the impact crater where she actually did hit the ground and she actually lost some fur in the hole, too," Brammer said.

     The cat's small landing spot is surrounded by brick and concrete.

     

    “Whether cats can sometimes aim, so if it did it itself or if it was a combination of luck or both … it managed to hit that small patch of mulch, so it was very soft ground,” he said.

    After bouncing up from her fall of 150-200 feet, Sugar ran near the building, rather than out onto the nearby highway.

    “Instead of, you know, being scared and just running out into traffic, she somehow hit the best spot and stayed near the building,” he added. “So it was very fortuitous on many different levels.”

    Sugar, who was tended to by the building concierge before rescue officials arrived, suffered a small cut on her lip and a little bruising, including some to her lungs.

    “Considering what she had been through, she was in really good shape,” he said.

    The feline, about 4.5 years old, was aided in her fall by dynamics akin to the “flying squirrel” phenomenon, Brammer said.

    “You notice where their legs attach to the body, they have … the extra fur right there,” he said. If they put their legs out, “they’re able to glide a little bit and control … where they are going, and then I guess supposedly they can use their tail and move their body as a rudder to kind of control where they want to go.”

    And ironically, the height may have helped her, he added, noting that a rescue league veterinarian shared information about a study on cats falling from tall heights.

    “What happens is that the higher up, they reach terminal velocity and so I guess the sensation isn’t that they’re still falling. It kind of levels out so they don’t feel as stressed and they relax a little bit,” he said.

    The Animal Rescue League was able to track the owner through the microchip and with help from the building.

    Sugar's owner, Brittney Kirk, a 32-year-old registered nurse, said at first she didn't think her cat had made it. She had left the window open due to the warm weather because she didn't want Sugar to be in a hot apartment.

    "It just seemed so unreal … my thought was obviously that she didn’t make it," she said. "I was definitely relieved and kind of in disbelief … if there were a cat to fall 19 stories and to be fine, I think it would definitely be Sugar, because she’s a pretty special cat."

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