JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Another family pet in Jacksonville was found brutally killed in its own backyard.
And this time the discovery was in the backyard of a home located on Edgewood Drive on the city’s Westside.
“It’s hard enough for us losing our cat. We don’t have any children right now, so Leo was like our child,” said owner Timothy Evans.
The owners of Leo the cat believe two dogs were responsible for his death.
Surveillance video shows the dogs wandering in their front yard and driveway after they believe Leo was killed by the dogs in the backyard.
His owners are very heartbroken over what happened because it was just days ago they saw News4Jax’s coverage of a series of fatal dog attacks on pets in the Mandarin area and had no idea they would find themselves in a similar situation.
Timothy and Cecelia Evans said they came home Thursday evening after work to discover the bloody remains of their 8-year old cat Leo in the backyard.
“I knew pretty immediately, he was dead. When I turned him over, I found a bite mark on his head,” Timothy Evans said.
Their home security camera recorded two dogs coming from around the side of the home then briefly going into a path where there is access to the back yard. Leo’s owners believe the dogs gained access to their back yard from a narrow creek that runs behind their home.
“I hadn’t seen any dogs like this around our property. Our house is so far back from the street that we really felt safe having our pets on the back porch,” Cecelia Evans said.
Leo was an indoor and outdoor car, so the couple installed a pet door to allow him to come and go, but they believe he may have been cornered by the dogs and not able to get back inside.
“It looks like on the side of our back porch is where the first struggle was because there were some scratches in the dirt there. It looks obvious that something happened,” Timothy Evans said.
They also found what appears to be muddy dog paw prints on the patio.
While it’s unclear where the dogs came from, one dog can be seen wearing a collar. Both dogs were last seen on video leaving the property then running through the neighborhood.
Leo’s owners are hoping someone identifies the owner of the dogs before another pet is injured or killed.