A woman found her cat decapitated in the grass near her home on Southeast Salmon Street by 28th Avenue Sunday evening, according to reports.

The woman, who is only identified at "Joelle," told KATU that she is devastated by the loss of her 3-year-old black cat named Button.

"I can't believe it," Joelle told the TV station. "I still think she'll come home, and I know she's gone and she's not going to come home."

Joelle said after she found the cat dead and with its head placed next to it on the ground, she went to her neighbor Miranda Keenan's house.

"When I picked her up, there wasn't any blood underneath her, and it struck me as really creepy at that point, and it was such a clean scene," Keenan told KATU.

Randall Brown, field manager for Multnomah County Animal Control, said over the phone Wednesday that his agency has opened an investigation into the incident.

"Hopefully by the end of the week we should have some more information," Brown said.

Neighbors, including Keenan, are worried about what they see as a pattern in the neighborhood.

Chuck McCarty, another neighbor, told KGW that he found a cat decapitated on the same block, a day before Button was found.

"If there is somebody in the area doing this sort of thing, it's a big concern," he said. "Cats could go to dogs, could go to kids, who knows. Anything like this should be a concern."

Another neighbor, Josh Bartoemay, told KATU he too had come across a cat "decapitated and gutted" while delivering mail several blocks away.

"It looked like someone did it; it doesn't look like an animal could've done it," Bartoemay told KATU. "It basically looked like someone had cut the cat, rib cage in half, took out all the organs. It was clean. It had no blood. It was very disturbing."

According to Portland Police Bureau spokesperson Sgt. Peter Simpson, the police did not take a call regarding Button.

But, said Sgt. Simpson over email, there has been some confusion about this in media reports, because police did take another, similar call on Monday: A "report of decapitated cat found in a yard in the 7900 block of Southeast Raymond Street."

"Officer said cat appears to be cut in half, just behind shoulders," Sgt. Simpson said

The officer noted that there was no obvious indication of an animal attack.

Brown said he is only aware of one decapitated cat -- Button, the black cat. That cat, he said, was brought in Monday.

Sgt. Simpson said that cat decapitation is not a common event and added, "In many cases, these are actually the result of an animal attack (coyote) rather than a psychopathic animal abuser."

-- Lizzy Acker

503-221-8052

lacker@oregonian.com, @lizzzyacker