CAT ATTACKS A WOMAN.
Enraged Feline Held on Till Head Is
Severed From Body.
While a mad cat, its teeth fastened into the chin of Mrs. F. A. Petitt, clawed and scratched her face in a frenzy caused by the approach of a bulldog, the woman's brother-in-law, summoned by her screams for help, cut the cat's head off with a pocket knife.
Mrs. Petitt's eyes were not injured. Her hand received an ugly wound from the knife.
Mrs. Petitt lives at 3020 College avenue. She was returning home yesterday morning through her back yard from a visit to a neighbor when she picked up the cat, a large maltese, nearly full grown. She petted it. The animal seemed to resent any display of affection.
A large bulldog, belonging to Mr. Petitt, came running from the porch to meet the woman. Crazed with fear, the cat sprang for Mrs. Petitt's face. Its needle-pointed teeth sank into the flesh and held on tenaciously, the cat scratching the woman's face and hands in a terrible manner. For five minutes the woman, screaming and terrorized, battled with the cat. H. M. Roxby, her brother-in-law from Yates Center, Kas., who is visiting at the Petitt home, hearing calls for help, ran to her rescue.
Finding that it was impossible to force the maddened cat to release its hold, Mr. Roxby used his pocketknife to cut its throat.
As the knife blade all but severed the cat's head, it penetrated Mrs. Petitt's hand. Mrs. Petitt fainted.
Dr. Herbert A. Breyfogle dressed the wounds and said that aside from leaving a few scars they will not prove serious. Mrs. Petitt's head is bandaged so that she can hardly eat or talk. She is a linotype operator on an afternoon newspaper.
