Woman May Have Been Attacked by Her Pet Cats

An elderly Panorama City woman -- the possible victim of a stroke -- remained hospitalized Thursday after authorities found her lying on her apartment floor with evidence suggesting she had been chewed on by her pet cats.

The woman, identified by neighbors as Mae Lowrie, was taken Wednesday night to Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in Panorama City. She may have been incapacitated for as long as a week, and it’s possible the animals bit the 86-year-old woman because they were starving, said Los Angeles Fire Department spokesman Jim Wells.

The woman had bites on her hands and feet, Wells said, but he did not know how serious they were. Lowrie’s small, sick terrier also had been attacked, said Jackie David, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles Department of Animal Services. At least seven cats were living in the apartment, she said.

The dog, which was suffering from dehydration, malnutrition, multiple flea bites and other conditions, was euthanized at an animal emergency clinic.

Wells said Lowrie had initially been listed in critical condition at the Kaiser hospital, but a hospital spokeswoman said her condition had been upgraded to fair on Thursday.

Neighbors said Lowrie, a retired house cleaner, had lived alone for about 20 years in the apartment building in the 13500 block of Saticoy Street.

They became worried about her after noticing that she hadn’t picked up a bag of canned and dry goods that had sat on her doorstep for a number of days. They had planned to invite her to a celebration at the complex Thursday night.

On Wednesday, several residents went to check on her. Through an apartment window they saw her lying on the floor and heard a soft cry: “Help me, please.” They alerted the building manager and summoned help. Wells said the apartment was in disarray when firefighters arrived about 9:30 p.m. Wednesday.

“She was a pack rat, and had trash to the ceiling,” David said.

Incidents in which animals attack their owners are not unfamiliar to city animal care workers, who have found pets that have fed on owners who died or became sick and immobile, David said.

But Richard Ford, a doctor of veterinary medicine and an expert on domestic animals at North Carolina State University, said such behavior was not normal in cats. He suggested that the cats may have been feral -- and thus particularly aggressive. He also said they might have been suffering from dementia brought on by an illness.

“I’ve never seen a cat or a dog” exhibit such behavior, he said.

Animal authorities took six live cats and one dead kitten from the apartment, David said. The surviving animals have been examined and deemed to be in good health, if a bit scrawny.

The animal services department plans to turn them over to Lowrie’s relatives if the relatives claim the animals within 30 days. If not, David said, local rescue organizations have offered to adopt them.

“They’re not aggressive or anything like that,” David said, “so they are adoptable.”

She said an animal control officer planned to return to the apartment Thursday night to set traps for any remaining cats.