Article content continued

“This cat is not a cat,” says a neighbour who asked not to be identified. “It plays soccer with the kids. It chases the ball. It’s super friendly. All the kids who walk home from school know this cat. The cat doesn’t really bother anybody except this one guy.”

This last statement, we’ve discovered, is not true, but for the moment let’s meet this one guy.

Joseph Ladouceur lives next door to Lily, et al. He keeps a nice lawn and flower beds, while on the step beside his front door is a decorative wooden cut-out of a cat.

“For the past year and a month that we’ve been here,” says Wayne, “(Ladouceur) and his roommate would call Lily over and pet her and all that stuff — they were good friends.

“And he would hand her back over when we were looking for her,” adds Tilbrook.

Additionally, when the family returned home from a March break trip to find their driveway shovelled for them, their security camera footage revealed that Ladouceur was the Good Samaritan.

Ladouceur has no pets himself, but he says he loves animals. “I have birdfeeders in my yard. I have rabbits in my yard, chipmunks, sparrows and other birds. And that cat sits and hunts all these things.”

Lily also, he notes, does her business in his yard and garden.

“I don’t like it. I enjoy looking out in my yard and seeing a rabbit munching on whatever, rather than seeing a cat have a turd in my yard.”

The final straw came at the end of March, when Ladouceur took his seasonal car — a BMW — out of the garage for a wash. He left it out to dry before returning it to the garage. The next day he noticed muddy paw prints, white hairs and scratches on the car. A neighbour, he says, informed him he’d seen Lily on the car.