HE is the most wanted moggy in Hampshire.
First the ginger tom viciously attacking a woman in her own bedroom and leaving her needing hospital treatment.
Now it has emerged it may have struck earlier savaging two other cats.
Today there are calls for the fearsome feline to be caught and caged.
As reported, library assistant Helena Silver suffered a dozen bites when a ginger tom cat repeatedly sunk its teeth into her hand after sneaking through her open bedroom window in Avenue Road, Southampton, and fighting her cat Gem.
Helena, 48, spent six days in Southampton General Hospital. Her arm was put in plaster and she was given an intravenous antibiotic drip amid fears she would develop blood poisoning.
After seeing the cat’s picture in the Daily Echo, pensioner May Draper believes it is the same animal that struck at her farm in Bursledon more than five miles away.
Her moggie Henry needed vet’s treatment and could not walk for a fortnight after a ginger tom bit him eight times on his back legs. It also attacked Mrs Draper’s other tabby Hannah in February.
She said the animal first appeared at her home and shop in Pickwell Farm in Grange Road in November.
It was caught eating her pets’ food after sneaking through the cat flap.
The 70-year-old grandmother of two has been forced to shut the pair in since the attack said: “We’ve been plagued and tormented by a ginger tom cat at least once a month.
“It looks feral, it crippled my cat and when I saw the picture in the paper I’m sure it’s the same one.”
She urged the authorities to catch him immediately and added: “I can’t believe what the poor lady has been through – I was brought up on a farm and I’ve never known a cat bite humans like that.
“It’s shocking. I’m really worried if it comes back and I wouldn’t like the grandchildren being near an animal like that.”
There have been sightings of the cat in the Portsmouth Road area of the village and as far away Woodhouse Road and Peartree Green in Itchen.
Mrs Draper said it is common for strays to cover large distances and added: “Cats do travel for miles, but the difficulty is going to be catching it as they can be impossible to get at.”
Mary Gray, who lives in Earls Road, Southampton, wants the RSPCA to intervene and neuter the terrifying tom cat so it can be given a new home. She says her own cat, Misty, is “mortally terrified” of the tom.
She said: “It has come into my house and terrified my cat. It tried to attack it and it has sprayed in my house.
“It’s highly intelligent – I have to make sure it can’t get into the house when I’m not there as it will try.
“I’ve even seen it able to open a cat flap which should only be opened by the microchip in Misty’s collar.”
Mrs Gray says it is time for the RSPCA to step in and take the tom, which she thinks is about 12 years old, off the streets for its own good.
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