Appelman tried to comfort the animal but it was "spitting and huffing like she was in pain," she said. "She died in my arms."

The death of the family pet was just the first tragedy that May 17 morning. Only a few hours later, the family found Baby, another cat suffering in the same tortured fashion. When Dawn and her daughter Janette hurried to take the second cat to the veterinarian, they discovered s local stray dead on the side of the road.

Over the last few years, Appelman has lost eight cats and one dog to suspicious circumstances, she said. She believes a vindictive neighbor is poisoning her pets, she said, cradling one of her two remaining cats in her arms. The cat tried to wriggle its way out of her arms.

"He wants down," she said. "I won't let him go. I don't want to risk him dying."

The nine dead pets all seemed to die in the same way and Appelman suspects poison. Her mother Janet poked at a pile of cat vomit with a short stick, pointing out small bits of hot dog.

"We don't feed them that," she said. She worries for the neighborhood's small children who, playing in their yards, could come across the allegedly poisoned food.

In the past, Appelman has paid to have an autopsy performed on her dog. The animal could not be tested for poison because not enough of the stomach contents were sent to the lab, she said. Her vet concluded that several of the animals were poisoned with rat poison killer, she said. After the rash of 2004 deaths, her pets seemed safe, until now. The animals come and go from the house freely through a swinging dog door. However, she confines them to the house now that she suspects a cat killer on the loose again.

Neighbor Joe Diaz has also noticed strange feline activity in the past. On more than one occasion, he has found piles of cat food dumped in his yard.

"I don't know who's feeding the cats," he said. "But I don't like the food in my yard."

He loves cats and would never harm them, he said - "If I wanted to kill cats, I would have killed them a long time ago" - but hates the mess they leave in his yard after flocking to the cat food. Their excrement is left underfoot and gets on the wheels of his motorized scooter. In addition to the mysterious food, he has found dead cats in his yard in the past.

"You find them all over the place," he said of the dead cats.

Since Appelman opted to have the cat euthanized, Veterinarian John Quick could not pinpoint the cause of death. It could have been any number of possibilities, although poison may have caused the symptoms, he said. He verified that the cat came in unresponsive, displaying seizure-like behavior with dilated eyes, which indicate a "pretty severe central nervous system shutdown," Quick said. "The cat was on death's doorstep when it came in. It would have been a long shot to save this cat."

Police have their eye on the unusual activity, Sgt. Jim Gillio said. They would be able to investigate more thoroughly if they had proof that the cats were poisoned. But after so many deaths, Appelman said she can't afford another autopsy.

"We are definitely concerned with this as well," Gillio said. "But it's a tough crime to prove. We need evidence of the poison, something to go on. Unfortunately, animals die every day. Unless we have proof, it's tough to check every animal for poisoning."