Elderly man accused of trying to kill family cat

A 75-year-old Wauwatosa man could face felony charges of animal cruelty for attempting to stab the family cat to death in his backyard Friday morning.

According to Wauwatosa police:

The 2-year-old cat had bitten the man's wife a few months ago. The woman had an infection as a result of the bite and spent a week in the hospital recovering.

On July 1, the cat again bit the women when she tried to pet the animal. She was again treated by a doctor and had to wear intravenous medical equipment on her arm to protect against infection.

Because of those incidents, the couple decided to take the cat to the humane society and have it euthanized. At least that was the wife's plan.

But those plans apparently changed.

On Friday, the wife woke at 7 a.m. to her husband yelling that he had injured himself while trying to kill the cat. He was taken to the Zablocki Veterans Affairs Medical Center, where he was treated for two deep cuts to his hand and a severed tendon.

The man told officers he loved the cat, but considered it vicious because it had hurt his wife. He stabbed it several times and cut himself in the process.

The cat ran away after it was injured.

The district attorney will decide this week whether to charge the man.