STOW – A man says a neighborhood cat attacked him Monday morning as he was walking his dogs about 8:30 a.m. in Stow, OH.
“The cat jumped off the fence and ran towards the dogs and myself,” said Ralph, a resident of Pambi Farms who did not want to give his last name. “I tried to get in the way to try and protect the dogs and the cat latched on to my leg and scratched.”
Ralph was left with several inches-long scratch marks and two small dots.
“It looks like a bite mark to me,” he said.
Ralph said he did not provoke the cat which came from a house near the entrance of the neighborhood.
Betty Sue told Local 2 reporter Dick Inurmuth that she and her dog had a run in with a cat from that very same house last summer.
“We were walking across the street and we saw this cat and it just launched off the porch and came running at us,” Betty Sue said. “He probably chased us about a half a block,” she said.
The cat’s owner said the cat has been known to run after dogs but had never harmed a person. The owner said the cat has a current rabies vaccine, but the owner could not provide Local 2 with proof.
Neighbors say they’re arming themselves against a wild animal that is attacking family pets and human beings in the middle of the day. One dog is recovering and another dog is still missing, and authorities have been receiving a number of reports about missing neighbors.
For now, the Stow Police Department recommends keeping small pets and children inside.