"The way she loved that cat, anyone who came in here would hear about it," said Pam Berthelot, who works with Miles at River Baron's Bar & Grill in Buras. "It was like her baby."

But for as much as Miles' friends and neighbors indulged her near-constant bragging about the 3-year-old leopard, some said Tuesday that they were not shocked by news that the animal clamped its teeth on the back of Miles' skull Monday afternoon, nearly tearing off one ear and ripping the flesh from her scalp before sheriff's deputies and her brother-in-law shot it dead.

"You can't keep a wild animal locked up like that and think it ain't going to bite you," Berthelot said.

Surgery on face, head

Miles, 33, was in fair condition Tuesday night at West Jefferson Medical Center in Marrero, where she underwent surgery Monday for cuts to the face and head, relatives said.

Meanwhile, rabies tests on the leopard were under way at the state Department of Health and Hospitals laboratory in New Orleans, and results were expected today , said Ray Ferrer, Plaquemines Parish Health Department superintendent.

Authorities also were trying to piece together whether Miles, whose neighbors and friends have insisted she has proper paperwork on the leopard, broke any laws by keeping the animal in a 10-by-10-foot makeshift cage behind the converted trailer where she lives with her 14-year-old son.

The incident was reminiscent of the Oct. 3 attack by a 7-year-old white tiger on Las Vegas magician Roy Horn of Siegfried and Roy, said Laura Maloney, executive director of Louisiana's Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. Horn was severely wounded, unable to breathe on his own because of a puncture hole in his neck.

"Big cats often attack their owners," she said, adding that such an assault often surprises them.

'A horrifying scene'

Such was the response of Miles' friends and neighbors, who recalled watching her walk Jovani on a leash when he was a kitten and seeing him ride in her truck. He was declawed, they said, but not neutered.

On Tuesday they recounted the scene at Miles' house the day before, in which a deputy "described a horrifying scene (with) half of the lady's head engulfed in the leopard's mouth," said Maj. John Marie of the Plaquemines Parish Sheriff's Office. "It was just ripping at her."

The deputy, who responded after Miles' son and mother called for help just after 3 p.m., shot the leopard three times in the hindquarters and stomach. "That's the only shot he could take," Marie said.

Miles' brother-in-law, who lives nearby and came running when he heard her scream, finally pointed a shotgun at the animal. It fell with a single blast to the head.

The mauling left Miles' left hand bright red with blood, witnesses said. Police wrapped a towel around her head to slow the bleeding and, some said, to keep her long blond hair from further tearing the flesh from her skull.

But Miles, who grew up on Paula Drive just down the block from her home, was conscious after Jovani was shot and walked unassisted to a squad car that sped her toward a community hospital, witnesses said.

Friends worried about how she would react when authorities told her Jovani is dead. That thought, more than any memory of struggling to free herself from his grip, certainly would fracture her spirit, they said.

Miles spent years trying to get a leopard from a Georgia breeder. She spent $2,000 to secure the proper licensing to keep Jovani as a pet. She fed him raw chicken necks and high-protein exotic cat food, and she spent hours playing with him, even after taking the restaurant job recently to supplement her work at the local post office.

She was always glad to take visitors to her back yard to see Jovani, but she knew he did not like children and kept them away, said Paul Hingle Jr., who lives across the street. And though she loves all animals, she seemed to love Jovani most of all.

"That cat was her pride and joy," he said. "It was like her other kid. It was like a kind of trophy, only she didn't kill it; she let it live. I know she's going to be upset about that cat being shot."

No laws against cats

It is unlikely charges will be filed against Miles for keeping a wild animal in her back yard as a pet, Maloney said.

She said the state has no laws prohibiting ownership of exotic cats, though some parishes, including Orleans and Jefferson, ban the practice.

But the federal Department of Agriculture is looking into why Miles had the leopard, and she could be fined if licensing violations are uncovered, an agency representative said.

Lynn Bourgeois, a veterinary medical officer with the federal Agriculture Department, said Miles would have had to register the leopard with his agency only if she had been breeding, exhibiting, selling or performing research on the animal.

"If it's indeed just a pet, we can't touch her," he said.

Plaquemines Parish has a cockfighting law that prohibits anyone from keeping "any wild, exotic, ferocious, dangerous or vicious animal for display or for exhibition purposes . . . for the purpose of fighting or training to fight."

Though it doesn't address keeping wild animals as pets, the law is meant to be a "preventive measure so wild animals won't be in residential neighborhoods," Parish President Benny Rousselle said. It sets a maximum fine of $500 and 60 days in jail for violators.

Still, parish officials may have a hard time sanctioning Miles. If she says she wasn't keeping the animal for display or fighting purposes, it would be legal for her to have it as a pet, Maloney said. "That's how I would read that."

But regardless of the law, a leopard "is just not an appropriate pet to have in your back yard," said Dan Maloney, the Audubon Zoo vice president and general curator.

Most private exotic pet owners are ill-equipped for keeping a wild animal, he said.

"You're dealing with animals, even animals raised from the earliest ages by people, that still have the potential to act like wild animals," he said.

"Just a leopard's tongue is rough enough to scour flesh from bone."

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Staff writers Sandra Barbier, Amy Blakely, Rob Nelson and Karen Turni Bazile contributed to this story.

Michelle Krupa can be reached at mkrupa@timespicayune.com or (504) 826-3785.