Owner's warning after cat shot with an air rifle

Loved pet Fudge needed emergency surgery to remove pellet lodged near lung

POLICE are hunting the sick thug who shot a cat at close range in Upper Bucklebury.

Fudge, a two-year-old tortoiseshell, needed emergency surgery to remove an air gun pellet lodged near her lung.

The shooting is the latest in a string of incidents in the area in recent years.

Fudge’s distraught owner, Kim Austin, made the grim discovery last Thursday.

Mrs Austin, a receptionist at the Falkland Veterinary Clinic in Newtown Road, Newbury, said Fudge comes and goes at will from the family home in Roundfield.

She said: “Then, last Thursday I noticed she just wasn’t herself.

“She didn’t want any treats and looked uncomfortable.

“She wouldn’t go out for the rest of the day and next morning she was still lying in bed and hadn’t moved.”

Mrs Austin, aged 32, took Fudge to the veterinary surgery, where a vet found a lump on her side which felt like an air gun pellet.

X-rays confirmed the worst and Fudge was rushed into surgery to remove the pellet.

Mrs Austin said: “The vet, Carl Gorman, said it was the worst case like it he’d seen.

“Fudge has lots of stitches and will need more x-rays because it’s possible her lung has been damaged.

“We were told that she must have been shot at close range for the pellet to have penetrated like it did, so someone must have done it deliberately.”

In 2015, a one-year-old cat named Jack was left fighting for his life after being shot in the neck by an air gun pellet in Upper Bucklebury.

And, last December, a pellet was fired from a car driving past the Bladebone Inn in Chapel Row.

The shot smashed the window and struck a man, who was inside, in the face, leaving a red mark.

Police have been informed of the latest incident involving Fudge and officers suggested to Mrs Austin that she contact the Newbury Weekly News.

If anyone has any information regarding the incident, they should call police using the non-emergency, 101 number.

Alternatively, the independent Crimestoppers charity can be contacted on 0800 555 111.