By Brendan Rees
A Cranbourne West woman has told of the moment she had to snatch her beloved cat from a stranger who had tried to put him in a cage.
Donna said her cat Bart, a Ginger tabby boy, was sitting in her driveway on Monahans Road when she looked out her window and spotted a woman patting him on Friday 29 March between 10am and 11am.
However, as soon as Donna saw the woman try to place Bart into a cage she “came flying out the door.”
“I actually thought she was patting him like many people do.
“I nearly went through the window that’s how quick I had to get out there,” she added.
“I’ve gone out there and she’s stated to me that ‘I’m taking your cat because you’re neglecting him.’
“As I confronted her she kept stating to me that I’m neglecting my cat,” Donna, who wished for her surname not to be published, explained.
“All I stated to her was ‘You ain’t taking him nowhere and she replied to me that she had called the vet.’
Donna says Bart who is aged 19 and has arthritis told the woman she would call police if she didn’t leave.
At that stage, Donna said a passenger from a car parked in the driveway was “yelling out to her to get into the car” and the woman left.
Donna says she was shaken by the incident and hopes to warn others of her experience.
“It’s disgusting,” she said. “She was determined to take the cat; she had no intention in knocking on my front door.
“Knock on someone’s first instead of taking it upon yourself to trespass and take their animal.”
She said Bart was “very loved” and “far from being neglected.”
“He’s still healthy, he jumps on the couch, on the furniture; he annoys the dog, he eats like a Labrador and drinks like a drunk.”
Following the scare, Donna says Bart was confined to her deck and “can’t go out where he wants to.”
“One of the neighbours did say to me she is pretty sure she’s seen the car around school hours (on Monahans Road).”
Donna described the woman aged between 20-30 years, chubby, with brown hair and glasses.
