Cats Catara and Zuko of Jefrrey Zeeman and neighbor cat Koppie died last week after possible poisoning symptoms. A total of five cats died on the Oeverwal in Hoogwoud. The neighbors miss the cats very much, both indoors and in the area.
Jeffrey Zeeman’s youngest cat (8 months) and his mother (almost 2 years) came home around dinner at the beginning of the week. “We saw that the youngest kept falling over, we thought ‘What is he doing weird?’ We then went to the vet and he felt that he had a full bladder, for that he was treated under anesthesia and once at home he lay comfortably on my daughter’s lap. He was still shaky from the anesthesia.” Despite the vet visit, Zuko did not improve the next day.
In the meantime, mother cat Catara also started showing signs of loss at the back. “And the youngest the next morning was completely limp like he was already dead, but he was still breathing,” Jeffrey said. Unfortunately, Zuko was beyond saving. “He had seizures and died on my daughter’s lap.”
The other cat had meanwhile gone to the vet and was on an IV. “We wanted to keep her alive for the animal police,” Jeffrey says. “But on Thursday morning it really didn’t go well and then we pulled the plug. She also had those epileptic seizures, but they were suppressed by drugs.”
The owner of neighbor cat Koppie (9 months) was already a bit afraid that his cat would also come home sick, because Zuko and Catara had not made it. And that happened, Koppie came home with symptoms. “That is of course very sad,” says the owner. “All the cats have come home with a tormented walk and a slump on their hind legs,” he says of the symptoms. “At that moment, or only later, they started to show epileptic symptoms. They also had to vomit and at some point it went into a kind of lifeless state, very absent and no longer responding to stimuli.”
That’s how it was with Koppie. “It was already late at night so we were supposed to go to the vet the next morning, but she had already died the next morning,” says her owner, also a resident of the Oeverwal. “In the end we didn’t contact a vet anymore. Autopsy is very expensive, you don’t even start there.”
Don’t go outside anymore
In the neighborhood were always a lot of cats active, tell the neighbors. “Normally they looked for each other through a system of fences,” says Koppie’s owner. Now there are a lot less cats outside. Some people keep their cats inside and five of them have died in all. “That’s very sad.” Koppie’s owner has another cat, Koppie’s mother, and she will stay inside for the time being.
Jeffrey also has another cat, a red male named Harley. “He went far away and sometimes stayed away for days,” he says. “Now he also stays inside and he does that quite well.” Both neighbors don’t want to keep the cats in forever and are unsure about how to adjust their yard. They both have no idea what the cats ingested or whether it was on purpose or not. The police say there is no need to be intentional. For example, it could be an algae control agent.
Jeffrey hopes it will be resolved soon. “I don’t think it’s done on purpose. The vet said it’s quite difficult to poison a cat on purpose. It’s sad how they die now. It’s really suffering.” Both neighbors buried the cats in the yard.
The name of Koppie’s owner is known to the editors.