Owner warns others to be careful with their pets after her cat was a whisker away from being stolen

After her cat came close to from being stolen from her Carey Park driveway, owner Cat Pesce wants to warn other pet owners.

In recounting the terrifying moment she realised she had almost lost her nearly two-year-old pet, Ms Pearce believes she was targeted due to it being the rare and expensive Sphinx breed.

“Definitely his breed, you sort of see him and think ‘you never see cats like that,’ and he’s so unique,” she said.

“I’m sure people like that probably see a price tag on him which is really, really horrible because he means so much to me and Puss, he’s my first cat, they’re like brothers and they get along so well, I just can’t even imagine what I would have done.”

Ms Pesce said the attempted cap napping occurred while she and her partner were hosting friends.

She said a man who had waited hours outside her property tried to coax her pet Ja-Jah for more than ten minutes at around midnight.

Eventually, the man was successful and grabbed the cat before riding off with it in his arms and out of view of their security camera.

But somehow, just moments later Ja-Jah returned to the house having escaped.

The experience has left both owner and pet rattled.

“I never thought it would ever happened to me,” Ms Pesce said.

”My partner was saying ‘he was almost gone’ and I was like ‘oh my god,’ and I just broke down.

“I felt like it was like all my fault, it was such a horrible moment.

“He’s (Ja-Jah) just been really clingy, he keeps jumping on me more . . . he’s just sort of not let me out of his sight at all.”

Ms Pesce said she had seen a similar figure possibly scoping out her home previously but with her cat usually exclusively indoors there was no risk.

It wasn’t until Ja-Jah escaped through a back fence left open by a child that he found himself outside the area.

Ja-Jah has remained an indoor cat with access to an outdoor “catio,” an outside space sealed off with netting to allow the cat fresh air without being able to leave the back garden.

Ms Pesce said this was a good solution for owners to keep their cat and the wildlife safe.

“I know that it’s hard to leave pets inside but maybe like catios it would be a great idea,” she said.

“I just can’t imagine something like this happening or him getting run over.

“Cats are predators to wildlife so I mean that’s another really important thing.”