Probe into attack by dog

The City of Greater Geraldton is investigating a dog attack on a cat in Beachlands last week.

Beachlands woman Marilyn McLeod said she was horrified to see the dog severely maul her neighbour’s 16-year-old cat, almost at her feet, on Wednesday.

The cat, Missy, later died.

“I had fed my neighbour’s cat and she was grooming herself,” Ms McLeod said.

“I heard the dog drinking out of my air-conditioning overflow tub.

“I jumped up to scare him away and he had hold of the cat faster than I could move.”

Ms McLeod said she scared the dog away and quickly phoned her neighbour.

“It was very clear to me the dog had broken her spine and it was very apparent there would have been internal injuries,” she said.

“When she was first injured, she went straight into shock and you could tell she was really labouring breathing.”

Ms McLeod said neighbourhood children identified where the dog came from, and later came and sat with them until 7pm.

“One came from the flat the dog came from but he didn’t own her. He had rocks in his hands, he was so scared of it,” she said.

“All the kids came and sat with us.

They didn’t want to leave us with this poor injured cat, so there were lots of kids that were witnesses.”

Ms McLeod said they made the cat as comfortable as possible and it died that night.

She said a City ranger had taken a detailed report from her on Friday, and she was able to supply photos of the dog and cat.

City of Greater Geraldton infrastructure services director Chris Lee confirmed the incident was being investigated. “We are unable to comment at this time,” he said.