Who is poisoning cats in Petite-Patrie?
Two cats have died recently after poisoning with antifreeze in an alley in Petite‑Patrie, and another was saved in extremis with an emergency vet visit. No suspect has been discovered.
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Kate
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jeather 17:55 on 2025-08-09 Permalink
Stories like this and not concern for birds are actually why I keep mine indoors.
Kate 08:43 on 2025-08-10 Permalink
I feel fortunate that my cat’s only interested in being outside on the porch or in my yard, and never goes out into the alley these days. If I had a younger more venturesome cat it would worry me.
jeather 12:37 on 2025-08-10 Permalink
Yes, it’s easy for me to keep cats inside when they have zero interest in going outside (they enjoy the balcony only and never try to walk off it). But I’m on the third floor, so it’s possible even if they want to escape. My mother has a cat who is desperate to be outdoors all the time and very fast, it’s a trial. Luckily when she has escaped she has come home reasonably quickly. But really I worry about cars and thefts and injuries too much to let them out, especially in the busy area I live in.
Janet 20:45 on 2025-08-10 Permalink
My cat developed an interest in the outdoors this summer. She is tiny, timid and very pretty, so I don’t want to let her out. (Birds aren’t an issue since she only hunts bugs.) She has allowed me to leash train her and now sits on the table beside the door where I keep her leash and yowls for me to come put it on and walk her around the yard. If she steps over the boundary into the neighbour’s yard I say a sharp “No!”, to which she replies “Meow”; we do this three times before she gives up and returns to our yard. As an extra precaution I have attached an Apple AirTag to her collar. Is it boring walking a cat? Absolutely.
dhomas 02:23 on 2025-08-11 Permalink
My cat is an incorrigible hybrid indoor/outdoor cat. He was a rescue, so he grew up “on the streets” and we never managed to train the outdoor-ness out of him. He’s very friendly to the point that some neighbours had given him a (different) name because he visits them so often. They also give him cheap quality food that he comes home to vomit. He’s getting older, so he’s easier to keep inside. But when he wants out, he’ll yell until we let him out to get some peace (he usually does this at 4 or 5 in the morning, since he knows this is the most effective time). A few weeks ago, he came home stinking of skunk. That was when we decided to be a little more diligent in keeping him indoors around dusk. We had previously worried about cars, but he’s been dodging them effectively for the 11 years we’ve lived here. Now we also worry about the neighbourhood skunk. But we had never considered the dangers of poisoning from a neighbour. So sad!
jeather 10:27 on 2025-08-11 Permalink
I had one cat who liked to cross St Jacques and hang out at the metro to see all the people. (He actually did rehome himself.) My mother had a cat who went on walks — no leash — around half her block, which took about 30 minutes and was absolutely the most boring imaginable walk.
I need to leash train a cat who is getting dangerously large, I think.
Kate 14:49 on 2025-08-11 Permalink
dhomas, I’ve seen skunks around here this summer too, and have been scooping Madame up and bringing her inside at dusk. So far so good. But deliberate poisoning by a neighbour is a whole other category of concern.
Ian 17:29 on 2025-08-11 Permalink
Lots of skunks around my area too but my cats seem to get along with them. Like, I’ve seen them acknowledge one another.
jeather 18:36 on 2025-08-11 Permalink
Skunks are super happy to just leave everything alone, I’m not surprised they will have a truce with cats (they are a bit big to be easy prey).
There was this ice cream place I used to go to near a forested area in a tourist town, and a few times an evening a family of skunks would come out of the forest and circle the picnic tables, people would flee, the skunks would eat their fill of ice cream and then march back in. If you just stayed sitting and watching they would completely ignore you.