• June 12, 2006
• Vol. 65
• No. 23

Dead Cat Walking?

Animal Lovers Rally Around Lewis, a Connecticut Feline That Could Be Put to Death for Attacking People

On Feb. 5 Maureen Bachtig pulled into her driveway, stepped out of her car and got mugged. By a cat. Named Lewis. "He ... lunged and clung to my right leg," says Bachtig, "leaving one very deep puncture wound [and] one deep gash across the top of my knee." It was, alas, not Lewis's first alleged lunge into lawlessness: In the past two years the long-haired feline had been accused of attacking two of his Fairfield, Conn., neighbors and a visiting Avon lady. Bachtig had had enough. She wrote to the state's attorney's office, suggesting Lewis be destroyed or declawed and kept inside his house forever.

As a result, Lewis's owner, Ruth Cisero, 48, a real estate broker, has been charged with second-degree reckless endangerment. Lewis's fate will be decided at a hearing on June 20. Cisero, who took Lewis in as a stray five years ago, has turned down a deal in which the charges against her (which could result in a maximum six months in jail and a $1,000 fine) would be dismissed if she agreed to have her pet euthanized. The 10-lb. cat, meanwhile, is under house arrest. "We are absolutely determined to have Lewis live," says Cisero's attorney Eugene Riccio. A friend of Cisero's has set up an account at a Web site (www.cafepress.com), which has raised $3,000 for his legal defense, and a Utah animal sanctuary has offered to take the cat in as an alternative to the death penalty. On May 23 a handful of protesters in "Save Lewis" T-shirts stood vigil on the steps of Connecticut superior court. "I cannot believe," says one, Marisa Sampieri, "that people would be wasting their energy to have this cat put to sleep."

At least one neighbor claims that the alleged perp is, well, a pussycat. "Lewis is a great cat and doesn't deserve to die," says John Ellis, 50, whose backyard abuts Cisero's. "I think this thing has gotten way out of hand."