BREWER – A woman in Brewer says she caught a fisher Tuesday night which may be implicated in more than a dozen cat disappearances.

Mary Henderson said that pet cats and kittens in her housing complex began disappearing about a year ago. About 15 cats had gone missing, Henderson said.

About a month ago, Henderson said, she looked out her window and saw a large fisher, a cousin of the weasel. She said it was about 3 feet long. A smaller one that Henderson believes is a female appeared about a half-hour later.

Henderson said she offered to try to catch the fisher, and was given a live trap that she baited with cooked poultry.

At 1 a.m. Wednesday Henderson checked the trap and found the smaller fisher chewing away at the wires. Henderson said she could not make contact with a warden, so a maintenance worker took the fisher to his property in outer Orono and released it.