http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_np=0&u_pg=1636&u_sid=1087959 Michael Kelly: Cat puts owner in 'horror movie'
BY MICHAEL KELLY
WORLD-HERALD COLUMNIST
A 4-year-old cat attacked its terrified owner in Omaha last weekend, causing 48 puncture wounds and extensive bruising and bleeding.
The unprovoked attack shocked the owner, jewelry designer Marisa Adamson, 26. She ended up in a hospital on an IV with antibiotics.
"He leapt on me," she said Wednesday. "I was trying to run away. I couldn't get him off me. It was like a horror movie."
A veterinarian called the attack the worst of its type that she has seen in 23 years of practice.
"I've never known anyone to receive near the severity of injuries that Marisa did," said Dr. Karen Campbell of the Bellevue Animal Hospital. "This is extraordinary in its severity."
Though rare, what happened is a well-known cat phenomenon called "redirected aggression."
It typically occurs, the vet said, when a cat looks out a window, sees another cat and gets agitated. The owner might try to console the pet - and the cat attacks the owner.
Saturday night, Marisa's husband, Ben, was at work. She was home in their Old Market apartment with their two cats.
Ernie is a 17-pound gold-colored cat purchased four years ago from a pet store in Lincoln. He had been a good pet.
Ernie got into a shopping bag, and Marisa heard him scrapping and tangling with the bag. By the time she walked into the room, wearing pajamas, the cat was out walking.
He hissed, and his tail puffed up. She reached down to pick up the bag and the cat angrily jumped on her - biting her hands, arms and right leg.
She screamed. He'd sink his teeth into her, shaking his head. After a struggle, she eventually pushed him off and into the bathroom, shutting the door.
With all the blood, the apartment looked like a crime scene. Marisa called Ben, who rushed home and helped clean her wounds and bandage her.
By the next morning, she had bled through the bandages. There were severe bruises as big as the palm of a hand, as well as the many puncture wounds.
Marisa spent four hours at Bergan Mercy, where doctors heavily bandaged both hands. The bandages were removed Wednesday afternoon.
Physicians feared that she would need surgery on her hands, but she found out that won't be necessary.
Marisa (Barlow) played soccer at Bellevue West High School and graduated from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. She stands 5-foot-5 and is healthy and strong.
But the usually docile, lovable cat attacked so viciously, she said tearfully, that "I feared for my life. It was like he was trying to take me down. It was horrible."
The cat, which had been vaccinated and declawed on its front legs, is in a 10-day quarantine at the Nebraska Humane Society to check for rabies.
Dr. Campbell, who has treated the cat for years, said she believes that the trigger for the attack was the shopping bag. When Marisa picked it up, the cat felt threatened and redirected its aggression toward her.
The vet, who owns three cats herself, said she might have done the same thing as Marisa - or tried to console the cat.
When cats show any sign of aggression, Dr. Campbell said, it's best to back off and shut the door. Though attacks like this can happen, she added, they are rare.
Dr. Campbell said it's doubly difficult for Marisa - suffering wounds and emotional trauma, and deciding she could never again trust the pet she loved. "My heart is broken for her."
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Stephen
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