Killing of 2 Cats Rattles Neighbors

Two cat killings within a nine-day span have left residents of a Dana Point mobile home park frightened and suspicious.

Both animals died from what deputies suspect were fatal pellet wounds, possibly from a pellet rifle, according to Lt. Gus De La Torre of the Orange County Sheriff’s Department in Dana Point.

At least one other feline, with an injury to its eye, is also believed to be a victim of a pellet gun, residents say.

Robin Zeisler, 48, a resident of Beachwood Park and Village Mobile Home Park, is mourning the loss of her cat, Viper, the first victim. He was barely a year old.

“When he didn’t come home for breakfast, I knew something was wrong,” Zeisler said. “He wasn’t in any of his usual spots. That was not like him at all.”

Instead, Viper showed up at her doorstep three days later--2 pounds lighter and with a wound on the right hip.

She took the animal to a veterinarian, where X-rays showed a pellet had entered the cat’s body, perforated its intestines, and nearly exited on the other side.

Following the veterinarian’s recommendation, Zeisler made the painful decision to have Viper put to sleep.

On Sunday--eight days later--a second cat was found dead in a nearby trash bin with a wound through its torso. The cat belonged to Zeisler’s neighbor across the street, in the 34000 block of Doheny Park Road.

De La Torre said investigators found fragments of lead in the cat’s body, possibly from a pellet.

Authorities have no suspects or motive for the cat killings yet, but some residents have their suspicions.

“People in the park seem to think it’s a neighbor,” De La Torre said.

Zeisler is keeping her fingers crossed that the perpetrator is not anyone who lives nearby.

“I know people have been saying it’s someone around here,” she said. “But I’d hate to think that it’s someone I know.”