A kitten is recovering at the Saskatoon SPCA after she was tied to a swing set and sprayed with bear mace.

A witness tells CTV News the incident happened last week in her neighbour’s backyard. Kennedy Williams said she was sitting on her patio last Monday when she heard a cat squealing and then witnessed a man spraying a kitten with bear mace.

“I ran downstairs, ran beside the house, jumped the fence and grabbed the cat,” Williams said.

“She was really tiny and scared. She looked really sad. It took her a long time to calm down.”

The suspect — who Williams described as a man in his 20s, wearing a black tracksuit and bandana around his face — started to flee the scene once Williams arrived.

While Williams rescued the cat, her boyfriend called police.

“I don’t know how someone can go to bed at night, knowing that they would do something like that to an innocent animal,” Mitchell Lynn, Williams’ boyfriend, said.

The kitten, Yogi, was then taken to the Western College of Veterinary Medicine, where she received urgent care.

“The little kitten’s burning eyes and skin were quickly soothed with special medication,” the SPCA wrote in an email.

Williams said she visits Yogi at the SPCA where she is receiving treatment until she’s ready for adoption.

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Editor’s note: An earlier version of this story, based on information from the SPCA, contained discrepancies with witness Kennedy Williams’ account. The original version stated “several teenagers” were seen "hanging” the kitten from the swing set and spraying her with “pepper spray,” but, according to Williams, the incident involved one man and the kitten was tied to the swing set and sprayed with bear mace.