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Child's scream alerts owner to cat's torment

By THOMAS LAKE
Published January 18, 2007

ADVERTISEMENT [Courtesy of Amana Pugh] Snowball rests after her ordeal of an arrow show into her head.

HUDSON - Last Sunday afternoon, Amanda Pugh was opening a can of Fancy Feast for her white cat, Snowball, when she heard her 6-year-old daughter screaming.

This is why: Snowball was under the coffee table, licking her paw, head impaled by an arrow.

The shaft was perhaps 10 inches long, pointing up from the cat's head. Pugh felt the point through the skin under Snowball's chin. Pugh called 911. Snowball went to the animal emergency room. And sheriff's Deputy Daniel Moslek III came to investigate.

One day earlier, he discovered, a neighbor on Krag Drive had been seen shooting a crossbow at a target propped against a wooden fence. A witness told Moslek that the archer was not shooting straight.

The archer's name was edited from the copy of the report released to the media, and no arrest had been reported by Wednesday. But the angle of penetration convinced Pugh that Snowball wasn't hit by a stray arrow. It looked to her as if someone stood over the cat and fired straight down. "There's no way this was an accident," she said.

Pugh is a single mother. She couldn't afford to pay for Snowball's medical care. So she released the cat to Pasco County Animal Services.

Somehow Snowball survived. Veterinarians managed to remove the arrow. The cat was at the shelter in Land O'Lakes on Wednesday, getting along fine.

"You wouldn't really know there was any injury," said shelter supervisor Kevin Mallory, who was preparing to put Snowball up for adoption.

Pugh is trying to get Snowball back. Meanwhile, she's worried about her daughter, Kayla, who has had nightmares ever since she made the discovery.

Thomas Lake can be reached at tlake@sptimes.com or toll-free at 1-800-333-7505, ext. 6245.

[Last modified January 17, 2007, 22:15:10]