The cut missed all Hula's vital organs.

Early Friday evening (February 24) around 4:30 p.m., Kimm McLaughlin left her cat Hula in her courtyard on West Point Loma/Mentone for “less than a minute” to run inside to use the restroom. When she returned, she found Hula had a slash across her belly.

“We spent a year training our cats not to leave our courtyard, so that's where they would always be,” McLaughlin told me. “And if they were outside one of us would always be with them…. I made a mistake and left her for literally one minute and when I returned found her like this…. In the four years that we have had her she has never ventured outside of our courtyard.”

62 stitches later...

McLaughlin took Hula to Cabrillo Pet Hospital, where she received 62 stitches. “The cut was about three-quarters of an inch deep and seven inches long but not life-threatening. It missed all vital organs. They thought that she may lose her hind leg but luckily she did not….

“I did not report it. The reason being is that there were no witnesses of what happened, at least no one has come forward…. I know all my neighbors very well. I have lived in this apartment for almost 20 years and most of us in the building have two or more cats….

“The vet said it was not an animal attack but looked like a slash from something very sharp and precise,” she said. “We couldn't find anything around the area that would have done this! Was it a human? We're not sure, but the vet did not discount that [possibility].”