Canterbury girl’s support cat goes missing, fears the worst

Isabella Long’s beloved cats Milo, Jasmine and D’arcy have disappeared in two-and-a-half years living in Prebbleton. Photo: Supplied

A Prebbleton family is devastated after the mysterious loss of their cat Milo - a support animal for their daughter Isabella who has a head injury.

And they’re worried foul play may have been a factor.

Star News reported last year a two-year-old cat lost its eye after being shot by a rifle in Prebbleton.

In January 2017, another two-year-old cat was shot with a .22 calibre bullet and his back left leg was amputated. He was shot again about a year later, this time in his front left leg, and had to be put down.

Jacqueline Long said since her family moved to Guardsman Pl two-and-a-half years ago, three of their beloved cats, Jasmine, D’arcy and Milo have disappeared.

Reuben Long with Jasmine, who disappeared from the Long family's home in 2019. Photo: Supplied

Milo was the most recent to go missing on November 21 and Isabella has been crying herself to sleep ever since.

Milo helped calm Isabella. Jacqueline said this played a vital role in letting her brain recover from a head injury sustained after being hit by a softball bat during school sport in 2018.

“With brain injuries, your brain is so busy trying to heal, that you can’t moderate your emotions.

“For her, [Isabella] it was calming, it was hugely calming. She’d sit down and Milo would just cuddle her. It just calmed her down and enabled her brain to get on with healing rather than processing emotions and feelings and physical reactions to stuff that she could not moderate,” said Jacqueline.

She said the previous coverage of Prebbleton cat shootings makes her fear the worst may have happened to Milo, Jasmine and D’arcy.

“All we know is that in the newspaper articles and the chit-chat around is that there have been cats that have made it home or been found and they’ve got gunshots in their bodies.

“We don’t know whether that rumoured shooter is doing his or her thing again, we don’t know whether someone’s trapping cats, we don’t know. There’s just an absolute lack of bodies,” she said.

An SPCA spokeswoman said it has received reports of cats being shot in Prebbleton in January 2017, December 2018 and June 2019, but none since.

She said it is unclear if these shootings were linked or if the Long family’s cats may have been shot.

“There are any number of reasons why cats go missing,’’ the spokeswoman said.