Cat Owner Faces Charge

It was a black cat in a black car on an 86-degree day.

And now its owner is facing criminal animal cruelty charges.

Animal control officer Jennifer Kline rescued the 4-year-old domestic short hair cat Tuesday, as it sat in a locked car outside a Perkins restaurant in the Valley. The animal was suffering from heatstroke and shock, and had been locked in the car for at least 30 minutes, Kline said.

“The cat’s ears were fire hot - that’s where they lose their heat,” Kline said. “It was panting very hard.

It very well could’ve died.”

Kline found the cat in the restaurant parking lot near Argonne Road and Mission Avenue just before 1 p.m. One window was rolled down a couple inches, but the rest were closed. The cat’s owner, Susan Bowman, was eating lunch inside the air-conditioned restaurant.

Another restaurant customer saw the cat, and reported it to animal control. By the time Kline arrived and found the owner, the cat was shaking and going into shock. Kline doused it with water and drove it to Spokane Valley Animal Hospital.

The cat’s owner, who was driving through the Valley on her way home to Bellevue, told Kline she had poured water on the animal while it was in the car, and that she never realized it could get so hot so fast. “She cried and broke down at the clinic,” Kline said. “She didn’t intend to harm her animal.”

Even so, Bowman faces misdemeanor animal cruelty charges, which are punishable by jail time and/or fines. Had the cat died, she could have been charged with a Class C felony.

A veterinarian treated the animal for shock and heatstroke and released it to the owner. It will survive, but may have suffered brain damage, Kline said.

She urged pet owners to leave their animals home on warm days, especially when shopping or running errands.

“Even within five minutes, your car can get so hot,” Kline said. “Even the 20-minute stop to get some milk is too long.”