Police said a Las Vegas man killed a stray cat that his neighbor had rescued and then claimed he was acting in self-defense.

Joshua D. Booth, 51, killed a 2-year-old female cat named Rita after an ongoing dispute with the neighbor about the multiple animals she had been caring for, according to a Metropolitan Police Department arrest report and court records.

Booth told police that the cat attacked him and that it then “spontaneously drowned,” the report said.

Police were called to the east Las Vegas home of Kimberly Guthrie just before midnight on April 12, according to the report.…