A feral cat attacked Councilman Tim Leigh at his home Wednesday night.

Leigh said he was sitting on his deck and enjoying the beautiful evening with his wife and his granddaughter as well as their “two crippled dogs” and a cat named Annie.

“I live in an open space, and this big gray and white feral cat comes up on the deck and starts chasing my cat around like a carnival act,” he said in a telephone interview Friday.

“It looked like he was going to jump on and kill my cat so I jumped in the middle,” he said. “The cat latched on to my left wrist by my thumb and bit down so hard it was like a pitbull. It wouldn’t let go. It wouldn’t let go.”

Leigh, who has been wearing a sling on his right arm after having surgery on his shoulder recently, said the cat attack lasted about 30 seconds but felt like hours.

“It was like stand-up comedy, but it was so horribly painful. I about passed out,” he said.

Leigh said he was finally able to shake off the cat, which ran off and disappeared.

Leigh said he immediately took antibiotics and thought he would be OK.

He was wrong.

“I thought it was going to be no big deal, but my hand puffed up like the Pillsbury Doughboy,” he said. “It got pretty bad so they took me over to the doctor this morning. The doctor said, ‘This is nothing to mess with.’”

Leigh is now wearing a sling on his left arm and take three different kinds of antibiotics, he said. Leigh will go back to the doctor Monday for a check-up.

“I didn’t realize how severe cat bites were. Apparently they’re like the worst you can get,” he said, adding that there’s a concern the infection could spread to his joints.

“I’ve never had a run of luck like this so I’m hoping I’m coming to the end of all this bad stuff,” said Leigh, who broke his leg in a bike-riding accident during the campaign season and then had shoulder surgery after he was elected.

“I think I’m probably allergic to elective office,” he said, laughing.

Leigh said he plans to be extra precautious.

“I’m trying to think what’s next,” he said.

“Yesterday I went out to the mayor’s golf tournament. I only stayed for a little bit in the morning because I knew that the thunderstorms would come over. I was sure I would get struck my lightening,” he said. “I’m not taking any chances.”

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