Owner seeks justice after cat was killed by apparent gunshot wound

By Zoe Hunt

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    SANTA CRUZ, California (KSBW) — A Santa Cruz cat owner wants answers and justice after losing her cat to what appears to be a gunshot wound.

“I rushed him to the emergency hospital, who took him in and confirmed quickly that he had been shot through the chest,” said the cat’s owner, Elizabeth Postovit.

It was a normal, quiet evening for Postovit until her beloved cat, Murray, turned up at the front door severely wounded.

“I honestly was afraid he was going to die as soon as I saw him,” Postovit said. “It didn’t even occur to me until I saw the wounds and I was covered with blood, he had been shot.”

Murray was rushed to the Pacific and Santa Cruz Veterinary Specialists, an emergency vet hospital, where he was in critical condition.

In the end, he did not make it. Postovit said putting Murray down was an extremely tough decision. The doctor advised it was best due to the extreme amount of suffering.

“I had to make the very difficult decision from looking at how sick he was, at how much he was suffering, thinking about him going through this for days, and really possibly not making it anyway,” Postovit said.

Santa Cruz Animal Control is the one taking on the investigation.

“We are still looking into what may have happened. There’s not a whole lot of information; nobody seems to have heard or seen anything suspicious, so we’re pretty early days,” said Amber Rowland with Santa Cruz Animal Control and Animal Shelter.

Murray’s patient report from the vet shows a diagnosis of “Polytrauma secondary to a gunshot wound.” This means he suffered multiple injuries from a gunshot wound.

However, Animal Control said they cannot confirm the cause until a forensic examination is done.

“It is important to understand that there has not been confirmatory information that the injury was caused by a gun or by a bullet so that it may have been caused by something else, and we just don’t know at this stage,” Rowland said.

Postovit is hoping to get the answers.

“The most loving cat I’ve ever had, I was very, very blessed,” Postovit said.

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