Seattle Cat Mom Is Suing the Blue Angels for “Terrorizing” Her Sick Cat

There must be something about late-July news stories that makes me go, Well, that’s a new one every time I see a headline. Last week alone, I wrote about a literal cat burglar in New Zealand, and the next day I covered a story about a woman who was suing her pet-sitter for not giving her her cat back.

Today, though, is particularly weird; a Seattle cat mom named Lauren Ann Lombardi is suing the Blue Angels (yeah, the United States Navy’s flight demonstration squadron) for “terrorizing” her cat, Layla, during the final days of her life. She filed the suit on July 21, 2025; it lists Cmdr. Adam Bryan, commanding officer of the Blue Angels, and Lt. Ben Bushong, as defendants.

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Layla, who had a heart condition, died on Aug. 11 of last year. Lombardi says that Layla’s condition was made worse by the Blue Angels flying over Seattle. Lombardi’s beef with the pilots actually began in 2023, over a year before Layla’s death. Per NBC, she wrote the following on Instagram on Aug. 2, 2024:

“Stop with your F******g bull**** you are terrorizing my cat and all the other animals and wildlife,” she wrote. "“Nobody gives a f*** about your stupid little planes.” The Blue Angels org allegedly blocked Lombardi on Instagram so that she could not direct-message the account or comment on their posts.

But this did not stop Lombardi from getting upset a year later, in August of 2024, when Lombardi brought home from the animal hospital, close to the end of her life. Lombardi’s attorney, who is also her husband, wrote in the lawsuit, per NBC, that despite Layla’s heavily sedated state at the time, her “primitive limbic system overruled her medication and she fled in primal panic beneath furniture, her labored breathing escalating to clinically dangerous levels.”

The lawsuit also reportedly mentions that Layla’s “walnut-sized brain” experienced “pure debilitating terror” as the planes flew overhead. It also says that she “died knowing only fear when she should have known only love.” Layla reportedly died after spending her last week in an animal hospital.

“Layla’s final days on Earth were marred by sadistic suffering — cowering in terror beneath furniture while her ailing heart struggled against the Blue Angels's relentless noise pollution,” the lawsuit reads, per KOMO News.

Kinship has reached out to a representative for the Blue Angels but did not immediately receive comment.