someone shot my cat with a BB gun

This morning I gave him his meal then he went out, he was in good shape as usual. My cat is 1 year old (this march). Sometime later he comes back and he looks very weak, he starts vomiting all around the floor, something greenish, whitish but there was no blood. I thought he ate something he found outside that he shouldn't be eating. He lies on the floor grunting just like a human would do. I look at him to see if he has a wound or something like that, but I find nothing. Then he goes to sleep at his usual place, but he is very weak. So I decide to go see a veterinary, turns out he has a hole near the stomach, and I didn't see it. The radio shows that he has a pellet inside him and fortunately no organs have been hit. I left him there until tomorrow, I think they will have to remove it.

I live in an area where there are many kids and I am sure one of them thought it was smart to shoot at a cat. I am angry and sad.

That's just evil. Why do people do that? Man ... that's gotta' be tough on you as a pet parent. I'll be thinking of you and the kitty cat. I hope it works out okay.

Maybe he poops in the neighbours flowers?

I hope your kitty comes through it OK and learns a valuable lesson about staying away from strangers.

This is why my kitties are indoor babies. Our cat disappeared when I was growing up and we never did find out what happened to her. After that, all ours were indoor babies. There are just too many ways they can come to grief.

Sorry to hear that for you and your cat! Poor thing

He's so cute, by the way!

a reply to: gosseyn

Cats are tough Sob's. I had a cat called Zorro and an evil neighbor shot him with a crossbow. It went clean through his leg and out the otherside, we found it in the garden.

It cost around £650 ( nearly $1000) to get him fixed up but he still shat in the guys garden.

I am a pacafist so did not take action but enough animal loving folks found out locally to make ammends. I am sure he will recover and god speed.

My neighbor did that to my cat many years ago. I dented his front door not so calmly telling him how I was going to teach him better manners. He didn't come out which was a good decision. He moved out at the end of the month. My wife talked me into a better plan that I can't reveal as I don't know if the statue of limitations has run out yet. I wasn't too mean, but he got the message.

Hope your kitty gets better!

I'm really saddened to hear about your puddy tat, human beings can be so F-ing awful, I hope you find out who did,. Why are kids allowed BB guns anyway.

That's terrible! I hope your kitty is OK.

Cats can become pests to neighbors, though. It's best to keep him indoors or set up a kennel outside where he can be outside, but not escape to other people's property.

originally posted by: stirling
Maybe he poops in the neighbours flowers?

Really unnecessary comment.

That being said, sorry to hear about that OP. Pretty damn terrible. Kudos to you for being a good pet owner and recognizing something was wrong and getting him to a vet quickly. I hope all goes well and he has a speedy recovery!

originally posted by: Cloudbuster
I'm really saddened to hear about your puddy tat, human beings can be so F-ing awful, I hope you find out who did,. Why are kids allowed BB guns anyway.

Shooting cats is the lowest of low, in the context of taking pot shots.

However, to point out that cats are the scourge of wildlife and in the UK alone are estimated to kill 275 million animals (55 million birds) a year. No wonder in New Zealand and parts of Australia they shoot feral cats.

Hope that all cat owners on ATS put a bell on their cat!

Sorry to make a point, and sorry about your cat.

a reply to: gosseyn

I'm sorry to hear that your cat was injured. No good can come of letting a cat run loose outdoors.

originally posted by: Tangerine
a reply to: gosseyn

I'm sorry to hear that your cat was injured. No good can come of letting a cat run loose outdoors.

I am interested, how or why could you own a cat and not have it be outdoors?

I live in the UK and this is what we do with cats, to do otherwise would be wrong in our culture.

I live in a remote area so may be missing a point here.

originally posted by: nonspecific
I am interested, how or why could you own a cat and not have it be outdoors?

What happened to your cat is precisely the reason we (many of us) keep cats indoors. We use litter boxes. Or you can build a cattery outdoors like the one in the pictures above.

Back when I lived in Texas, my next door neighbor poisoned a cat we fed. I don't know where the cat came from. Probably just abandoned by some guy who was PCSing to a new assignment. It happens. The cat certainly wasn't wild and adjusted fairly well to going in and out of our home.

My children were young at the time and enjoyed having the cat around. When I went to ANCOC, the neighbor struck. Apparently, the cat made use of the neighbor's sandbox to do its business. Can't fault the guy for being upset about that. I was none too pleased to find out my children watched the cat die in agony just outside my back door.

I learned lots of lessons from that experience.

I really must say two things.
1. Whoever shot that poor little kitty is a P.O.S.

2. No, I was wrong, just one thing.

As a cat lover, I don't care if you think a cat is a "pest" in your yard or not. Talk to the cat's owner if you have an issue. I've had two cats killed (one by a scumbag sheriff I lived next door to, he poisoned my kitty with rat poison, the other by neighbors who just didn't like seeing a cat sitting in their yard), and it was because of these anal-retentive people that I moved into as remote an area as possible, where the nearest neighbor is a mile away, so my cats could be cats and do what they do: Hunt outside, play, roll in the dirt and sun, and sleep in the weeds.

Shooting a cat with a pellet gun can kill them, or cause them intense suffering. I realize that not everybody can move to an isolated area, so with the world being the way it is today, where life is not respected and some creeps get off on killing and torturing innocent creatures, it is better to keep them inside, providing them with toys, a cat tree, etc. Cats are the least domesticated of all the pets, and they are happier outside, but let's face it.....people are cruel bastards, and there are too many cases of cats shot, poisoned, have acid poured on them, lit on fire, etc.....If you live around others, keep kitty inside. It's a sad fact of modern life.

originally posted by: FissionSurplus
As a cat lover, I don't care if you think a cat is a "pest" in your yard or not. Talk to the cat's owner if you have an issue.

What if you don't know who the owner is? Some people aren't willing to ask around or put up fliers to find out who owns the cat.

I agree with everything else you said. Resorting to harming the cat is nothing but cruel and inhumane. If a loose animal was bothering me, I would do everything possible to rectify it without harming it... but many people aren't animal lovers. If I own an animal, it's my duty to protect it from asshats.

I'm sure your beautiful kitty will be just fine. I always had indoor cats too, like other posters here. They had things to climb on, I'd have pots of that grass they sell for cats to chew on, they had toys, at least one companion cat, tons of love etc. They were happy and content and safe.

a reply to: Benevolent Heretic

I'll wager that most of you ate some part of an animal today. Perhaps it was a pig. A lot of people love pigs for pets. Some places they even eat cats. Nothing is sacred along this animal. Cats that are allowed to roam are at the mercy of the place where they roam, whether it is speeding cars, other, more dominant cats, people with BB guns/shotguns or poisoned weiners.

I, at this instant, have a problem with a cat that has decided that my cat is its punching bag and that the food that I supply for my cat is its whenever it desires. I don't know who this cat belongs to, but when it is on my property, it is an intruder and how I deal with it is my business.

Controlled dogs, leased and/or confined, is a fairly typical law of the land today, cats get a pass on this issue because they hardly ever attack or kill people, but, still, owners that think that their cats should be allowed to roam at will and allowed safe passage are deluding themselves about the value and worth of their animals. If it means SO much, keep the damned thing at home.

As for my cat, she adopted me a couple of years ago. She is an "outside" cat and does not come into the house. She roams and kills baby rabbits, pocket gophers and birds in addition to her ample supply of food she gets morning and night. If some day she doesn't come to her food bowl, I'll assume that she got a bit cross with other aspects of nature. So be it.