A Salford cat-lover has spoken of his horror after one of his beloved moggies was shot with ‘an air gun’.
Stuart Green, 67, says he discovered his 13-month old short-haired domestic cat Lottie last Monday covered in blood.
It was only after being rushed to the vets that Stuart was told she had been attacked with ‘an air gun’ — and a pellet had embedded itself in Lottie’s spleen.
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The ‘very, very stressful’ ordeal has taken a toll on Stuart, who lives in Swinton, emotionally and financially — with the vets’ bill coming in at over £2,000.
“I have five cats. One of them we had not seen for a little bit, and she has mental health issues, we think,” Stuart told the Manchester Evening News.
“We went upstairs to look for her at about 7pm on Monday (August 2).
“When I got to the top of the stairs I saw our youngest cat covered with blood all over her side. I knew pretty much straight away this was not the time to think, ‘let’s see how she goes’. So, we got her to an emergency vets in Salford.
“Next day we found out from the vets that when the X-ray [came back] they found an air gun pellet that had clipped the edge of her liver and embedded itself in her spleen.”
Fortunately, after undergoing surgery, Lottie is slowly getting back to her old manic self, Stuart, an ex-forces man, said.
Despite Lottie looking like she will make a full recovery, Stuart says the incident still gnaws at him.
“It was a very, very stressful time, not just for the cat, but us, too,” he said.
“None of our cats are insured, the bill for her treatment was £2,095.
“The vet was disgusted over what someone would do.
“What gets to me is that we might not be the only ones.”
Having reported the attack to the police, Stuart says he has put up letters on lampposts around his home warning other owners of what happened to little Lottie — to raise awareness of the dangers to cats.
