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Stan Lewis and his wife, Kathy Harrigan, had been taking care of Harley the tabby cat for more than two years. The older, fluffy pet had wandered his way into their family, much like one of their dogs, Lulu.
But on Sunday Harley became the latest victim, the seventh, in a series of cats killed, mutilated and left on prominent display by what authorities believe is a serial cat killer.
Lewis said he and his wife were aware of the killings — two others occurred in west Olympia — but never envisioned losing Harley.
“We didn’t think about it happening to us,” Lewis told The Olympian on Monday.
Before coming into the care of Lewis and Harrigan, Harley lived in a different house not far from their own. Once his previous owners moved into an apartment, he started living with Lewis and Harrigan’s neighbors across the street.
But Harley didn’t like living indoors, so he eventually drifted away from that home as well.
“He was kind of a stray,” Lewis said. “He was a cat that didn’t want to go in a house anymore.”
But Lewis said Harley then started sleeping under what he described as the room-like comfort provided by the maple tree in his front yard. Before long, Harrigan built a small, heated outdoor structure for her new-found friend, and Harley came to their house every day to be fed and brushed.
“He was about 20 years old. He was deaf,” Harrigan told KCPQ-TV .
“There’s no way he would ever have been an indoor cat or we would have brought him inside.”
On Saturday night, Harrigan brushed Harley and fed him at about midnight.
“I went to bed, and then in the morning, he’s usually right there at the door waiting for me and he wasn’t there,” she said. “Shortly afterward, the police came by and asked if we were missing our cat.”
Harley’s body was found by a neighbor in the 1700 block of Sixth Avenue Southwest in west Olympia. That’s not far from where another cat, Olly, was found dead on Friday in the 1500 block of Dickinson Avenue Northwest.
Harley was somewhat feral and there is no way he would have let anyone pick him up, Harrigan said. “He wouldn’t have allowed anyone to do that, so I don’t know how they got ahold of him,” she said.
“I think that when this kind of thing happens, it kind of hits you occasionally,” Lewis told The Olympian Monday. “I woke up this morning and everything was normal for a minute or something and then I remembered Harley.
“It comes kind of rushing back,” he said.
Since last October, officials know of seven cats that have been murdered and mutilated. The killings have been spread out: three, including Harley and Olly, were in west Olympia, two on Clearbrook Drive in Lacey and one near the Olympia Regional Airport in Tumwater; another was in Port Angeles. But all follow a similar pattern: the animal’s spine has been removed and their bodies were left in public.
The cats were cut open from stern to genitals with a scalpel and their spines were removed, with Thurston County Animal Services reported.
There is evidence Olly, who was found strangled and mutilated Friday morning, fought back. Officer Erika Johnson with Thurston County Animal Services is sending samples from her claws to the crime lab in hopes of getting a DNA match.
“I feel for the animal owners because I’m an animal owner myself and just the manner these animals have died is extremely horrific,” she said.
Tobiah Panshin, 36, lives in Abalon Pointe, an apartment complex near where Harley’s body was found. While his cat stays indoors, Panshin said the killings are still cause for concern.
“I’m horrified,” he said.
Pasado’s Safe Haven, a non-profit aimed at ending animal cruelty, has offered a $1,500 reward for information that leads to an arrest or conviction in the case, and Q13 News Anchor and Washington’s Most Wanted Host David Rose said he would match it.
Anyone with information regarding the case can contact Thurston County Animal Services at 360-352-2510.
