A four-year-old cat had an eye removed during emergency surgery after being shot.
Tilly had an eye removed after being shot by an air rifle.
She returned to her Wimblington home at around 8pm on September 12 with one eye shut and looking disorientated.
“When I got closer, I saw her eye was bleeding; I tried to wipe it with tissue but she wouldn't let me near it,” Chrissie Lee, her owner, said.
Tilly was seen by emergency vets and stayed overnight before an operation on Monday.
“That's when they found the air rifle pellet in her socket,” said Chrissie.
“She will hopefully be coming home today.”
“I was speechless when I was told she had been shot,” Chrissie added.
“The realisation that someone took a shot and hit her is hard to comprehend.
WARNING: The photograph below contains graphic content
“It has been tiring and upsetting to think what I thought was initially caused by a cat fight was actually an injury caused by someone who took a shot at my cat.
“It could have been intentional or an accident.
“I'm not sure I would want to let her out again in case they took another shot and she didn't get home next time.”
Chrissie said: “She will be susceptible to infection as lead is poisonous and enters the blood stream quickly in animals.
“Tilly doesn't normally wander far as she is shy and doesn't trust many people, so I guess it would have been done local to us.”
Chrissie said Tilly had been out all day on Sunday.
“I had been out until about 4.30pm and usually, she comes back not long after I come home,” said Chrissie.
“She doesn't go far so heard me come home but that night, it was a bit unusual.”
Chrissie has since reported the incident to Cambridgeshire police.
But although she is not confident those responsible will be caught, what has happened remains difficult to understand.
A police spokesman said: “We were contacted on September 13 with reports a cat had been shot with an air rifle in the Wimblington area.
“On Sunday, the cat returned home injured and was taken to the vets for treatment, where an air rifle pellet was removed from one of its eyes.
“Anyone with information regarding this incident is urged to contact police via their web chat service https://bit.ly/3vsiYDw or online forms at: https://www.cambs.police.uk/report/Report quoting 35/62038/21."
Anyone without internet access should call 101 and always dial 999 in an emergency.
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