Cheney police and Spokane County Regional Animal Protection Services, SCRAPS, officers aren’t certain if two stray dogs were what killed a cat in the Golden Hills area last Wednesday evening, but are advising the public to keep an eye out for them nonetheless.
In an email late on June 22, Kellie Yates said two “large, block dogs” had entered her home on Sunrise Drive by forcing open a heavy sliding glass door. She wrote that they chased her two cats through the house before “killing one of them at 7:44 this evening,” and that her roommate eventually chased them outside where they fled.
Yates said she contacted the Cheney Police Department, and their dispatcher instructed her to contact SCRAPS. In doing so, she received the county department’s after-hours recording asking her to contact the office after 10 a.m.
In following up on the incident June 27, neither Police Chief John Hensley nor SCRAPS Director Nancy Hill said they had any record of being contacted about the incident. SCRAPS field operations manager Ashley Proszek then contacted Yates, who told her she had seen two dogs in her yard earlier in the evening of June 21 and had shooed them away.
Around 7:45 p.m., Yates said she received a text message from her roommate who had come home to find two dogs running around inside the house. She managed to chase the dogs from the home, and when Yates returned, the pair searched for the two cats.
One was found alive inside the house, while the other, a foster cat who Yates had taken in along with her two kittens, was found deceased outside.
Hensley said he contacted a mother and her children who were playing at Hibbard Park in Avalon place Thursday morning and asked if they had seen two reported stray dogs. At that moment, they did notice two large dogs nearby, but when Hensley approached, they quickly fled.
Hensley said those dogs were not black. He described one as a dark brown German Shepard with a red collar and the other as a lighter brown pit bull without a collar.
Hensley said the department may have some procedural issue with the fact that Yates’ call was not logged. He added the public should use his description of the animals and keep an eye out for them.
“If anybody has any further information, call police dispatch,” he said.
Proszek offered the same advice, noting if a witness came forward who saw the dogs chasing the cats, or showing aggression, they could deem them “potentially dangerous” and impose restrictions. If someone saw the animals kill the cat, they could be labeled dangerous. She added there was the possibility a neighbor of Yates might also have seen what happened.
“Unfortunately, when the killing of the cat isn’t witnessed, we can’t make the determination the dogs are dangerous,” she said.
John McCallum can be reached at [email protected].
Reader Comments(0)