CANADA – A young Sudbury boy is now in mourning over the loss of his beloved cat after a frightening incident last week when an unknown assailant shot the feline.
Joleen Moffatt explained that she heard as many as four shots on the night of July 13, although a few other witnesses say they heard three. It wasn’t until the very next morning when they found out that Shadow, her son Zac’s three-year-old cat, had been hit by one of the bullets.
“I was sitting here alone, watching TV and I heard the gunshots,” Moffatt explained on Monday. “I actually called 911, because they sounded like they were right in the backyard. At the time I didn’t know it was Shadow.”
She turned off all the lights in her Fairview Avenue apartment and then she just waited. At the same time, at approximately 10:30 p.m., her husband, Darryl Morin, was walking home from a friend’s house and also heard the shots.
“The cops drove by right away, but I guess they didn’t find anything,” Moffatt stated.
They later went outside but didn’t see anything at all unusual. However, the next morning around 11, they saw blood on their steps and on the side of the building.
“I went down the street and there were cops standing there,” Morin explained. “I told them what happened and they came up.”
Moffatt went on to say that police didn’t know at the time it was animal blood and they sealed off the area in case there was a human victim and called in the forensics team.
“Sometime during the investigation, Shadow came out from behind the bush, and they realized it was him,” she stated. “His bottom jaw was completely gone, but he was still alive.
“It was so sad. I said his name, and he tried to get up, but couldn’t. He tried to meow, but couldn’t.”
SPCA did pick up the injured cat and took him away.
“We received a call later that he had been euthanized,” Moffatt stated. “One of the officers said it looked like he had been shot right in the face.”
While Zac, who is just 9, now has a brand new kitten, Moffatt stated her son was deeply affected by the incident. 9-year-old Zac erected a makeshift cross in the backyard in memory of his cat ‘Shadow’, and wrote messages on it about how much he will miss him.
“We had him since he was born,” Zac said somberly. “He would cuddle with me and play with me sometimes. Whenever I watched a movie, I’d bring him with me to watch.”
“That cat was his security blanket,” Moffatt stated. “That’s what makes it so hard. He doesn’t understand. Shadow was his best friend.”
The family has absolutely no idea why someone would do this. They have gotten along well with all of their neighbours since moving into the apartment a year ago, she explained and haven’t received any complaints at all in the past.
“The officer asked us if we had any enemies, but no … we’ve never had any problems,” she stated. “We keep to ourselves, and the neighbours right around here, we have great neighbours.”
No bullet was located around the scene, police said to reporters on July 15, but the investigation is ongoing and they are urging anyone who may have information to contact police or Sudbury Rainbow Crimestoppers at 705-222-TIPS (8477) or by texting TIP267 to CRIMES (274637).
Moffatt explained that they found what looks like a blood stain on a nearby road, and they suspect it’s where the shooting took place.
In addition to how this whole ordeal has affected her son, she concluded that it’s quite unsettling to know someone in the area could very well do something similar again.
“That’s what scares me most, there’s someone around here with a gun,” she admitted.
