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Debbie Denmon reports

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DALLAS - Police are investigating after a man walked into Dallas Animal Services with a bat in hand with the aim of getting his cat back home.

Surveillance video showed Roger Booth walking out of the animal shelter with his cat in its carrier and a baseball bat in his hand.

"I went prepared to get the cat one way or the other," Booth said. "I didn't have any intentions of hurting anybody."

Booth said he couldn't afford the $130 fee to get his cat out and didn't want to see the feline put to sleep.

"I didn't have the money to bail my cat out and I knew if I didn't bail him out he would be euthanized in 72 hours," he said.

But Erica Martinez, the receptionist he is accused of threatening, said the incident was more serious than Booth's interpretation.

"If anyone got into his way he was going to hit somebody with the baseball bat," she said.

As Booth walked into the room where his cat was, Martinez said she tried to lock him inside.

"And as soon as he saw me he closed the cat carrier and raised the bat like he was going to hit me," she said.

Booth walked past her and made it home with his cat. And while he could face felony charges, Booth said it was something he had to do.

"He was born not too long before I was diagnosed with prostate cancer," said Booth, who has stage four cancer. "I'm having trouble with one of my medicines, so I could go down any day."

Booth said his neighbors brought the cat into the shelter. And while Booth said the cat was wearing tags, he said he never got a call from a shelter employee.

"I really didn't think with all the crime out there - with the dope dealers and child molesters and everything else - that a story about a man trying to save his cat at a shelter is a story," he said. "They're acting like I'm a bank robber to take my cat back."

Booth turned himself into police Tuesday night but wasn't arrested. He will go before a judge later in the week.

E-mail ddenmon@wfaa.com