Cat Mauls Man Showering Parrot

Q U E B E C  C I T Y, Canada, July 13 -- An elderly Canadian man was recovering Thursday following a savage attack by his pet cat, which drew four carloads of police, two ambulances and ananimal control officer.

Gerard Daigle, 80, lost a pint of blood and requiredstitches after his cat Touti, a diminutive roughly meaningTiny, launched a frenzied attack after Daigle, who was givinghis pet parrot a shower, inadvertently sprayed the cat withwater.

"I have never seen anything like this in all my career,"said Guy Theriault, an animal control officer at the Societyfor the Protection of Animals in Trois-Rivieres, Quebec, halfway between Montreal and Quebec City.

"It was a real carnage: there was blood all over the place — on the the ceiling, the floor and the walls. The cat wasreally traumatized by the water," Theriault added.

Cat Had a 'Troubled Past'

He said the cat has since been euthanized and had had atroubled past.

Daigle, who lives in Trois-Rivieres, could not be reachedfor comment Thursday.

The animal control officer said Daigle was saved by his81-year-old wife who wrestled the cat away, only to have itturn on her.

"The cat wanted to eat her, too," one newspaper quotedDaigle as saying.

The couple managed to chase the cat into the bedroom andslam the door. Police responded in force because they thoughtthey were dealing with a domestic emergency.

It is not known why Daigle was giving his parrot a shower.