Blood smears on fence show where attempt to restrain the dog with a lasso occured. Photo submitted

A Campbell River senior endured a terrorizing incident Thursday when a roving pit bull ran into her house, attacked and killed the family cat before being tossed out by a neighbour.

A second neighbour lassoed the dog to restrain it and while under restraint, it succumbed to strangulation.

It all happened just before 2:30 in the afternoon on Feb. 28 at a Georgia Drive home. Clayton Norris said he got a frantic phone call from his mother “that a dog was in the house attacking the cat.” Norris, as luck would have it, was just down the street and dashed home.

“I went home and I arrived and there was a whole bunch of neighbours out front. I came around the back of the house there was a whole bunch of neighbours out back and one neighbour had the dog with a lasso, kind of leash, around the dog’s neck,” Norris said.

The dog was on the other side of the fence trying to jump over and attack the guy, Norris said.

Norris then went into the downstairs of the house which was a shambles.

“The furniture was knocked over, there was fur everywhere, blood on the walls. My cat was laying there with a lifeless body,” Norris said.

He quickly grabbed the cat and took it to a local veterinary hospital, Merecroft Veterinary Clinic, and left the animal with them and returned home.

“When I got home, the dog had passed away. I guess the dog was attacking the guy, like I said, and the dog suffocated,” Norris said.

Campbell River’s animal control contractor, Coastal Animal Control Services, sent an employee to the scene who took statements.

As bad as the scene was, Norris is more alarmed by the risk the dog posed to his mother.

“The worst part is that dog could have attacked my mom. That dog could have killed my mom. My mom’s not a big person,” he said.

The dog didn’t have any tags or licence that anybody noticed.

“No leash nothing, just roaming through the neighbourhood,” Norris said. “We’ve never seen the dog before, we don’t know where it’s from.”

“It was a horrific scene,” Norris said. “It was a really traumatic scene and it could have been a lot worse.”

Norris’ mother, who has requested to remain anonymous, was “extremely shaken up, extremely upset.”

It was traumatic situation, Norris reiterated.

“As far as I’m concerned it’s not really much different than having a bear come in the house. That would scare a lot of people.”

Neighbours from all over couldn’t at first determine where all the screaming was coming from but they eventually tracked it down. A neighbour from next door ran into the house to help. At first they couldn’t get the dog out of the house and had to grab it and almost literally threw it out of the house. It was then another neighbour secured the dog with a lasso.

Norris’ mother suffered a bite to her finger during the fracas and the family lost Pookie, their 15-year-old cat. The family also has a vet bill of $1,300. Coastal Animal Control Services has been contacted for comment.

NOTE: Pictures attached show the scene of the attack. Photos of the dead animals have been kept out.

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