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© Martin J. ReedThe "Becoming" statue at the University of Montevallo, shown in this picture on Friday, Oct. 26, 2012, is the site of one of the three dead cats discovered earlier this month that had been killed in a potentially horrific way.
The several stray cats are noticeably absent that once roamed the University of Montevallo campus among the brick buildings and tall trees that are shedding their fall leaves.

"They're gone," sophomore Taylor Fritts, 19, said while walking to class this afternoon. She remembered seeing six of seven cats, "like distinct ones you could recognize."

"The others, I know some students have been capturing them and taking them home so nothing will happen to them," Fritts said.

Whether their disappearance involves this month's discovery of three cats on campus that had been killed in a potentially disturbing manner is unknown, but some students and staff worry about the animal deaths happening so close to where they live, learn and work.

"Somebody on this campus has a problem and they need to be checked out," said Andronikia Ward, a sophomore.

Campus officials are remaining tightlipped about the manner in which the cats died, aside from acknowledging that "natural causes" were not to blame. University police are coordinating with other law enforcement agencies to investigate the crimes they label as animal cruelty.

Authorities in a statement released Thursday said there is no threat to the public from the feline fatalities, but concern exists among university patrons.

"It's just creepy that people would take their frustrations out on cats," said Melanie Andrews, a 19-year-old junior. "You can go to the gym and work it off."

Gabrielle Pringle, 19, called the deaths "creepy and cruel."

"Maybe they start up with cats, then it goes to dogs and it ends up with people," the university sophomore wondered. "When they start killing bigger and better things like people, that's when I'll be worried."

Standing with her friends in sight of the massive "Becoming" statue of hands where one of the death discoveries happened, sophomore Amanda Threatt questioned why the killings occurred.

"The cats don't do anything to anyone," the 19-year-old said. "I believe it's the freshmen because we've never had this problem."

Fritts said she is not worried, more freaked out by it. "In my view, it's kind of scary. It's more weird than anything else," she said.

Eating a sandwich at a picnic table as squirrels prance about on the grass, Phyllis Cofer, a registered nurse at the university, also recalled the stray cats that students would feed. The cats benefited the university because they kept the rats away from the buildings, she said.

"To think that somebody is killing them just to be killing them, that's cruel and mean," Cofer said. "If they hurt an animal they might hurt a human being."

She noted that Halloween is around the corner and maybe it's a prank. Or maybe it's not.

"These days you never know what person is going off the deep end, but it sounds like somebody is doing it because they like to see something die and torture it, which is very scary to think about," Cofer said. "Hopefully they'll find out who's done it."