Tracie and Paul Davis spent Saturday trying to get a strong-smelling, oily substance off their cat, Cleo. But the challenge of bathing an adult feline isn't what concerns them. It's the question of what the substance is and how their cat came to be coated with it.

"He came in this morning covered in lighter fluid from head to toe," Tracie Davis said Saturday afternoon. "We've looked all around the garage, we've looked in the neighbors' garages to see if there's anything spilled. ...

"Usually lighter fluid you have to squeeze, and the amount that's on him, he's been drenched in lighter fluid. So we called Security the first thing this morning to report it."

Paul Davis says Cleo is a very friendly cat.

Saturday evening, Tracie Davis reported Cleo was doing fine, and she offered the possibility that the cat had been drenched with oil used to fuel tiki torches, and not lighter fluid. 

Paul Davis describes Cleo as friendly to the point of being doglike. The couple got the short-haired tabby from the SPCA four years ago when he was about 2 years old. They thought he was a female, so he got the name Cleo.

Tracie Davis said there have been no previous incidents or any complaints from neighbors in their Puerto Drive neighborhood about the cat.

"He's pretty much an indoor cat. ... It was concerning when he was out later last night," she said. In addition to the fluid, she found several scratches on the cat.

"You'd like to assume people aren't doing this on purpose," she said. 

Anyone with information about the incident is asked to contact Security at 354-CARE or 354-3743.