By Jana Cone/reporter
TIFTON
Sat, May 17 2008
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For the last two weeks Carol Padgett of Homerville has been looking for her murdered daughter’s cat, Minky. Padgett’s daughter, Alisha Carol Lewis, had Minky — a 16-year-old calico — as a pet since Minky was a kitten.
Alisha Lewis and her husband James Scott Lewis lived in Tift County at 54 Connell Ray Road with their two dogs and four cats. On February 25, James Scott Lewis was charged with the murder of Alisha Carol Lewis after he told the E-911 dispatcher that he thought he had killed his wife by choking her.
“On Feb. 25 I got a call to pick up the animals,” said Regenia Wells, director of the Tift County Animal Shelter. “We got over there about 3 p.m. and seized four cats and two dogs.”
Immediately after the murder of her daughter, Padgett said, “I was bitter and sad.” She said it took her a while to collect herself and start wondering about Minky’s whereabouts. “No one knew where they were,” Padgett said of the missing pets.
“She is a beautiful old cat,” Padgett said of Minky. “She’s a very finicky cat. Not about eating. She just does not like strangers at all.” Padgett said she feared Minky would not live long without her family.
Padgett said the family started making calls to find out about Minky. “They called the animal shelter but they were told they couldn’t give them any information,” she said. In desperation, Padgett called The Gazette.
Wells told The Gazette on Wednesday that all four of the cats — which included Minky — had been euthanized on March 11.
“The cats wouldn’t let anyone touch them,” Wells said. “They gave us fits.” Wells said she had held the animals for 23 days, when technically she is only supposed to hold them for five days before euthanizing them. She said one of the cats had been sick and “we had to clean that whole side out.”
Wells said that on March 12 one of the dogs seized at the Lewis residence was adopted and on March 19, the other dog, a brown Chihuahua, “a family member sent a neighbor to get.”
Asked why she had not told the Lewis family that Minky and the other cats had been euthanized, Wells said, “They had been through enough. We didn’t want to tell them.”
Wells said after the cats were euthanized on March 11, the family began inquiring about the animals on March 18. “We did our job,” she said. “We can’t hold them for an eternity. I’m sorry.”
When told by The Gazette that Minky had been euthanized, Padgett gasped and then asked, “When?”
She said it would have been better if Wells had told them Minky had been euthanized. At least, she said, now they can stop wondering and looking.
Padgett said she understood that Minky would not have been “adoptable.” She said, “One time a service man came in the house and she just went crazy. She just didn’t like strangers at all.”
Padgett said her daughter had told her that there was something wrong with two of the cats.
Of her daughter’s murder and the loss of the family pets, Padgett said, “We’ve been through a lot and we are still going through a lot.”
She said the Lewises have three children: Crystal, age 22, Shanna, age 20, and Lance, age 14.
Padgett said she is now curious about who picked up the Chihuahua the family named “Reeses.” “They had him for about six years,” Padgett said. She was given Wells’ phone number so that she could get that information.
To contact reporter Jana Cone, call 382-4321, ext. 208.
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