Two cats have died from suspected poisoning in the Spanish Point area.

Police are investigating the deaths of the pets, which occurred within days of one another, on two nearby roads.

The cats suffered agonising deaths and are thought to have almost certainly been deliberately killed.

A warning has gone out to other pet owners to keep a close eye on their animals for any signs of bad health that may be caused by poisoning. The poisoning that killed the two Pembroke cats is fatal if not treated within the first 12 hours.

?This is a cruel way for these animals to die and usually by the time the cat starts showing signs of sickness it is too late to do anything,? said Police animal protection officer P.c. Yvonne Ricca.

The exact method used to poison the cats is not being reported in order to prevent any copy attacks.

It was on January 4 that Beash, a 14-year-old cat belonging to Cindee Miller and her family, became violently ill.

?We got up in the morning and found her paralysed and in pain and crying,? said Mrs. Miller, of Spanish Point Road.

?We took her to the vet, but later in the day she was vomiting dark blood and he had to put her to sleep.?

The cat?s death was distressing enough for Mrs. Miller and her two young children, but became more so when it was discovered a few days later that another cat belonging to a family living close by had also died as a result of unexplained food poisoning.

Faced with the strong suspicion that Beash had not died accidentally, but that someone had set out to poison her and another neighbourhood cat, Mrs. Miller said: ?What is scary is that this person is not killing feral cats, which would be bad enough, but pet cats.

?These are cats that come home and go to bed with the kids, who kiss and stroke them.?

Most households in the area keep pets and the news of the cat deaths has caused alarm.

?All of us are panicked. We are going home and checking on each others animals just in case,? said Mrs. Miller.

The second cat suspected of being poisoned was Bubbles belonging to Toni D?Amato, on Old House Lane, who said: ?We have three cats and realised that one of them was not well and had been vomiting.

?We kept an eye on all the cats until we were able to tell which one was ill and then took her to the vet.

?Bubbles was lethargic, not eating and vomiting.

?The vet diagnosed from the symptoms that it was most likely poisoning.

?We had her for 12 years. She was a member of the family. It was extremely upsetting to see her become ill.?

She added: ?We want to get the word out to tell people that this can happen and people should not wait to get help if their cat starts acting strangely.?