Baker City residents concerned about deaths of 2 cats, from adjacent homes, in a few weeks

Lisa Lanning wasn’t looking for a kitten, but then Harper Lee showed up.

The gray-and-white tabby, a gift from a friend last September when Lanning was dealing with a death of a beloved dog, quickly became a fixture in Lanning’s Baker City home.

“She was just a fantastic kitten,” Lanning said of Harper Lee, who was a barn cat from the Durkee area and named for the famous author of “To Kill a Mockingbird.”

“The best kitten I could ask for.”

That Lanning uses the past tense — was — when talking about Harper Lee  begins to tell the story.

About a month ago, Lanning, who is a physician, was in a meeting when she got a call from a neighbor, Hope Collard.

There was a dead cat in Lanning’s front yard at the corner of Second and Madison streets.

The cat was gray and white, and wearing a pink collar.

Just like Harper Lee.

Lanning drove home and confirmed what she hoped would not be true.

The cat was Harper Lee.

Lanning was curious as well as sad.

There was no obvious trauma that would suggest Harper Lee had been hit by a car.

She had bled from her anus, but otherwise there was nothing that seemed unusual.

Except that an 8-month-old, previously healthy cat, who had been spayed and vaccinated and injected with a microchip in case she ever went missing, was dead.

Lanning buried her pet.

A few weeks later, Collard again called Lanning.

Collard’s cat, Rachel, who was about 15 months old, had died.

Collard said her husband, Michael, found Rachel in their front yard, about four hours after the black cat had gone outside.

Rachel had a deep cut that extended from her anus to her breast, Collard said. The wound, she said, appeared to have been made by a knife or other sharp blade.

“It was not a tear, or something that was made by another animal,” Collard said.

She said it appeared to her that someone had placed Rachel in the yard, as the cat was on the house side of a fence.

“It was the weirdest thing,” Collard said.

She called Baker City Police to report the deaths of both Rachel and Harper Lee.

Baker City Police Chief Ty Duby said the two cat deaths, happening in adjacent homes, “is a little concerning.”

He said police don’t have any suspects.

Less than a week after Rachel was killed, Lanning heard from a friend that someone who lives on 19th Street had their pet cat walk inside and die on a sofa.

This cat, like Harper Lee, had no visible injuries.

Lanning began to wonder whether the deaths were accidental — or at least those of her cat and Collard’s, which were from neighboring homes.

“I just can’t even stand to think of someone harming an innocent animal,” she said.

Lanning said she’s worried about her two cats who, like Harper Lee, can easily navigate a dog door and spend time outside.

(She has a third cat but that feline stays indoors.)

Lanning said Harper Lee, who was experiencing her first spring, was eager to explore the outdoors.

“Once the snow melted she thought spring was the best thing ever,” Lanning said.

Collard said Rachel was “the sweetest little thing. She was just full of personality.”

Collard said she got Rachel and a sibling, a boy kitten named Ross, last September in the Safeway parking lot.

(Both names are homages to the 1990s TV series, “Friends.”)