Another Reason Why Owning a Cat is Dangerous

“NEW YORK—Police officers shot and killed a 65-year-old woman after they said she stabbed her neighbour at least eight times in an apparent dispute over the woman’s cat, and then refused their orders to drop her knife.

The cat, Dickie, also suffered a serious stab wound to the eye in the attack Thursday at an apartment on Staten Island. Police spokesman Paul Browne said officers responded to a report of an assault in progress at about 8:15 a.m. When officers arrived, a handyman said he saw Stephanie Lindboe grabbing neighbour Linda Padula by her hair and repeatedly stabbing her in the head, neck and shoulder with a kitchen knife.

The officers found Padula, 59, bleeding profusely and pleading for help just inside the door of her apartment. As one of the officers went to her aid, Lindboe flung open the door of the apartment across the hall and brandished the knife over her head.

Police ordered the woman to drop the knife. She refused and came at one of the officers. He fired two shots, one of which hit her in the chest. Lindboe was pronounced dead in hospital; Padula was in serious condition with eight stab wounds.

Neighbours told police the argument may have been sparked because the cat often defecated in the hallway. The cat was being treated at an animal hospital.”