A man has admitted stabbing his wife's cat to death following a drunken argument.
Andrew Beese appeared at Gloucester Magistrates' Court accused of causing unnecessary suffering to an animal.
The 60-year-old told police he could not remember stabbing the cat, but admitted he killed the pet, which was nursing four kittens.
Beese, of Bisley Old Road, Stroud, stabbed the cat several times and severed its aorta, causing extensive bleeding, Nick Sutton, prosecuting, told the court.
He then disposed of the animal's body in the back garden following the attack on 29 December last year.
"This was a pre-meditated attack," Sutton said.
"It was done out of spite. He killed the cat and it died from very obvious stab wounds.
"It really doesn't come more serious than this."
Steve Woodward, defending, said his client still does not remember stabbing the cat, but that he accepts the evidence.
He told the magistrates Beese the animal following an argument with his wife and that he had been drinking excessively.
Beese, who is balding with a grey beard, appeared in court dressed in a blue shirt and yellow tie.
He spoke only to confirm his name and address and enter a guilty plea to the charge.
The chairman of the board adjourned the case for sentencing on 15 June at Cheltenham Magistrates' Court.