Shot cat Filly fighting for life after Bank Holiday horror in Newbury

Operation after airgun thug targets pet cat

A TEN-year-old cat called Filly is fighting for his life after being shot with an airgun.

Distraught owner Paula Searl said she wanted to warn other pet owners, fearing “there might be someone driving round Newbury shooting at cats or dogs”.

On Wednesday Filly was being operated on to remove the metal pellet from his stomach.

Vets said his internal organs had been damaged and his ribs were smashed.

Mrs Searl, a mother of two who is currently furloughed from Finn Hair and Beauty in Pangbourne, said: “On the bank holiday Monday afternoon Filly came into the garden covered in blood.

“I washed him down with water and didn’t see any cuts so assumed it was from a rat or a bird.

“He spent the rest of that day sleeping.”

But the following morning she noticed an area of matted and bloodied fur on his body and took him to the vet.

An X-ray revealed the airgun pellet is in his stomach and an emergency operation was scheduled for Wednesday afternoon.

Mrs Searl said: “He never strays far from home.

“We’ve lived here for eight years and never heard or seen anything like this happening here.

“I’m so angry and we just hope he pulls through.”

The police have been alerted to the latest shooting.

It is not known if it might be connected to the near-fatal shooting in the head with an airgun of a swan behind the bowling alley in Lower Way, Thatcham, on April 21.