cat expected to fully recover

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A 65-year-old New York woman who had stabbed a neighbor in a dispute over her cat was shot and killed by police, authorities said on Friday.

Stephanie Lindboe was shot by officers responding to a call that she had assaulted a neighbor with a knife on Thursday morning in the borough of Staten Island, a New York Police Department spokesman said.

Police said the woman refused several orders by the police to drop the knife, which had a 7-inch (18-cm) blade.

According to neighbors in the apartment building, Lindboe stabbed Linda Padula in the neck after claiming that Padula had stabbed her cat. Neighbors said the two had a history of arguing over the cat, which was pictured in local newspapers with a bloody wound over its left eye.

Padula was taken to Staten Island University Hospital, the same hospital where Lindboe died after the shooting, the police spokesman said. Hospital officials said Padula was recovering.

The cat was taken in by City Animal Care and Control, police said.