Regarding the news article “Stray cat recovering from shooting by officer who suspected rabies” (Sept. 4) and the letter “Coverage of police shooting is definitely no cat’s meow” (Sept. 10):

Your reporting on little Clark’s unnecessary wounding was well-written. I thank you for it, and I thank law enforcement for paying medical bills.

After his harrowing August experience with humans, Clark benefits at the Animal Refuge League enjoying treatment reminiscent of Deb Webb’s, the kind lady who long fed him in her yard.

Your sympathetic article irks reader Jeff Wentworth – why? What does his annoyance over X-rays of tiny “shattered” leg bones tell about him, beyond the fact that he readily becomes sarcastic and then apparently feels justified?

Mr. Wentworth clearly cares nothing about a defenseless creature’s being shot down. Could he historically have been so badly disrespected by a cat as to produce an automatic derisive response to the entire species and anyone who offers that species solace? I suppose interaction(s) with a hissy feline or two could have rendered him jaded, but it’s nothing of which to be proud, and he is proud.

Clark is resting at the shelter in a long-deserved position of honor and privilege, hopefully healing well.

Unlike Mr. Wentworth, I appreciate seeing the heartbreaking images, reminders that in any relationship between/within species, there are strong and weak participants – the strong, albeit more noticeable, are not necessarily the smarter. Until Clark’s rescue, he’d been treated most unfairly, but, as my late mother would have said, there is a day of reckoning.

I’m happy for Clark, and I’m sorry for Mr. Wentworth. His out-of-proportion rage reveals a very needy man. Odd how a person’s exercise of legitimate First Amendment rights generally also evidences basic character.

God bless Clark and Mr. Wentworth. They both very much warrant our prayers.

Martha Yerxa

South Portland