Family distraught after kitten shot

Misty recovering from her surgery. Supplied photo.

A family has been left distraught after their kitten was recently discovered shot near their home in Bethlehem Rd, Tauranga.

Nicky Adams says the family started looking for the kitten when she went missing overnight.

Her 10-year old daughter discovered their injured kitten Misty, who is a Siamese-blue Russian mix, the next afternoon lying badly injured in the bushes of their property.

'Misty is still a kitten, we got her in March and she's got a beautiful nature,” says Nicky.

'We were really careful about not letting her outside until she was six months old, and because she's still only eight months she isn't usually out at night.

'On Friday night we didn't realise that she wasn't in the house or that she hadn't come back in.”

It wasn't until the next morning that the family thought it was strange that even if she had got out that she hadn't come back for breakfast.

'Unfortunately we had to rush out to Saturday sport with the kids, so didn't have a chance to have a proper look for her.

'When she hadn't appeared by lunchtime I drove around the area, but couldn't find her, so my husband Scott and the kids went walking around the house,” says Nicky.

She says her 10-year old daughter found Misty huddling underneath a bush down the side of their house.

'She was not far from her cat flap but obviously physically couldn't get through it,” says Nicky.

'You could see there was a hole in her leg and that she just couldn't stand on it but we didn't know the full extent of her injury, so we called the vet.

'When Raewyn, the vet, did the x-ray she commented that it was a really bad fracture and not just a clean break, which could well have been caused by a bullet.

'At first they couldn't see an exit wound so there were still questions around that being the case.”

She says Misty required three hours of surgery.

'When they did the operation they weren't 100 per cent about her being shot, but they subsequently found an exit wound.

'Consensus of opinion seems to be that to cause an injury of that magnitude it would have to be more than a BB gun.”

The family was advised to report the incident.

'Bethlehem is a built up area, and the reality is if there's someone's out there popping a gun at night, it's not safe.

'I know that cats usually roam, but she couldn't even stand on her leg, so I can't imagine that she would have been able to drag herself back from very far after she was shot.

'She's not a big cat either, she's still a kitten, a lovely sweet natured kitten – it's just incredible that someone could do this to an animal.”

Tauranga Vet Care director and vet surgeon Nick Sygrove says because the family acted promptly they were able to save Misty's leg.

'When we took an x-ray we saw that the humerus bone was so shattered, there was no other explanation other than it being shot.

'We could see a tiny few fragments of a pellet or a bullet in amongst it and we found the entry and the exit wound of a bullet.

'It was a complicated surgery, but we got on to things nice and early and got it plated up so we didn't even have to think about amputating.

'We managed to use the plate against the upper and lower humorous together and the cat looks like it's doing amazing.”

He says the shooting is not the first he has heard of in the city.

'We know of three other incidents, including one in Tauranga the other week and my business partner's cat has been shot as well about three or four months ago in Tauriko.

'I don't think there's much mistaking these cats for rabbits or whatever else they're shooting – particularly this one, because you can see they were basically aiming for the chest they weren't aiming for the leg it's just where the bullet exited.

'The owners did everything right, they didn't let the cat out for its first six months and then in its first outing it gets shot.

'It is lucky that they even found it, if the person who shot it didn't miss, they wouldn't have got the cat back at all.

Misty's owners are now looking at creating an ‘invisi-fence' so the cat doesn't leave the property, says Nick.

'It's nice to know that this cat is still going, and that we were able to put it back together for this family.”

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6 comments

Unreal

Posted on 19-09-2017 10:13 | By overit

Another horrible story. I am sorry to hear about. I am an avid animal lover and do not understand this mentality.


Complete Ignorance

Posted on 19-09-2017 14:01 | By Lvdw

This is probably utter ignorance on teh part of the person using the BB gun. My ex neighbour's son used to fire his BB gun from their back fence, into the bush area behind our properties. I spoke to him about it, because we have cats, and his response was 'oh, it wont hurt the cat even if it accidentally gets hit'. What an idiot!Whoever did this deserves to be shot with his own BB gun.


Bloody hell!

Posted on 19-09-2017 16:40 | By Papamoaner

If some idiot is wandering around with a high power air gun, they need to be found and dealt with quickly. Don't forget that a police officer was shot dead in Auckland a few years ago by a high power AIR GUN!Your culprit is a VERY NEAR neighbour because your kitten could not walk far. I hope you have notified police about this!


We humans....

Posted on 19-09-2017 21:09 | By groutby

...are seriously changing our attitudes toward giving a festering rats a** about anything except ourselves...regret?..nah...reason?...nah...ask the birk who will have done it..."I dunno"..."seemed like fun"...for who exactly?...MORON!


Glad the cat...

Posted on 19-09-2017 23:48 | By GreertonBoy

will pull through... and i hope the shooter is proud of himself... what an A hole. I hope karma bites you on the you know what! Own up and say why you did this, or arent you man enough? Pfffftttt Hero (NOT)


Excuse for a human being.

Posted on 20-09-2017 01:11 | By Ben Dover

Yet another cruel mindless moron on the loose with a gun. Would love to have 5 minutes alone with him/her to dish out a bit of their own medicine!


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