Danielle Blankenship: Charge for killing cat by blowing heroin smoke in its face dropped

Blankenship.

Last month, Danielle Blankenship, 21, was accused of misdemeanor animal cruelty for allegedly killing her cat by blowing heroin smoke in its face -- and Boulder authorities talked about upping the charge to a felony if any heroin turned up in the cat's system. But none did, prompting the district attorney's office to decide against pursuing any animal cruelty counts. But Blankenship's not free and clear yet.

"The toxicology came back negative for heroin," says DA's office spokeswoman Catherine Olguin about the necropsy of Muffin, Blankenship's cat, which expired some time after police were called to officiate a domestic dispute involving her and Robert Thompson, her former boyfriend. Thompson is the one who reportedly told police Blankenship had been smoking heroin and blown some of it in Muffin's face. For her part, she denied smoking heroin at all, let alone giving her cat of blast of secondhand smoke.

Not that Blankenship is completely off the hook. Olguin notes that "she still faces a third-degree assault charge" stemming from Thompson's assertion that she hit him in the face.

The hearing on that matter is slated for tomorrow -- and will presumably be much more ordinary than if Muffin had been the center of attention.

More from our Marijuana archive: "No sharing, stoners: Vet says pot can kill your dog."