New Zealand: Couple offer $500 for information about husky that killed their beloved pet cat

NEW ZEALAND -- A central Auckland pet owner is offering $500 for information leading to the dog that killed her beloved cat in front of her eyes.

Ponsonby woman Sarah Round said that a husky came onto Williamson Ave property late on Friday night and viciously attacked her cat Sparkle which later died in her arms.

Round wants to track down the husky's owner make sure this doesn't happen again, but she said she does not want to see the animal destroyed.

Round said she and her partner were in bed when they heard a strange yelping sound coming from outside.

Her partner went to the window to see what has happening and shouted: "A dog's got our cat, it's got Sparkle."

The pair ran outside, her partner grabbing a vacuum cleaner pipe on the way.

Not wanting to get attacked herself, Round stood back where she witnessed the dog tossing the whimpering moggy from one side of the lawn to the other.

"I saw the dog with Sparkle in its mouth and I was screaming at the top of my lungs 'It's gonna kill my cat! It's gonna kill my cat!'."

The neighbours came over after they heard the shouting and helped her partner to subdue the dog.

"They tried to get the cat out of the dog's mouth but every time, it would bite down harder into her stomach, so they had to stick the pipe in between the cat and the dog's jaws," Round said.

When they got the cat back, they jumped in the car and drove to the after-hours vet clinic.

Round pleaded with the vets to save her pet but Sparkle was pronounced dead on arrival with serious hemorrhaging and puncture wounds to its stomach.

"One really horrible fact is that I could feel her go stiff – like rigor mortis setting in – on the car ride there. She was dying in my hands."

"We're absolutely devastated and distraught. It was really traumatic seeing my cat being killed on my own lawn."

In spite of this, Round was not angry at the dog and did not want it to be put down.

"I just don't want it to happen again, I would hate to hear of it happening again and there are a lot of cats in Grey Lynn," she said.

Round is offering the $500 reward for information that leads to the identification of the husky so the owner is aware of what happened and can put in place steps to control the dog.

The self-professed animal lover wants to make sure the dog is properly secured in future and said that getting in contact with the owner was also about "closure".

"She was so important to us, she was our baby," Round said.

(Auckland stuff.co.nz - ‎Jan 13, 2016‎)