A pensioner couple have been left heartbroken after their pet cat was shot.
Lesley and James McCulloch spotted their moggy Darwin was limping.
They took him to the vets, thinking he’d just got in a fight with another puss.
He had an X-ray to check to see if the 16-year-old black cat’s leg was broken.
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But they were shocked when it came back to show an air gun pellet lodged in his leg.
They have had to fork out for surgery, which cost £3,000, with not all of it covered on their pet insurance.
It happened in the village of New Rossington, near Doncaster, South Yorkshire, near where the OAP couple live.
The RSPCA is now investigating the shooting, as reported by Need To Know.
Lesley said: “We took him to the vets and they gave him antibiotics and ibuprofen, thinking he had maybe been in a cat fight.
“But he didn’t get any better so we went back to the vets the next week.
“When the vet examined him they could hear a clicking noise in his right front leg so they carried out an x-ray to check if it was broken.”
Lesley added: “When the vet phoned me up and said he had been shot, I was so shocked.
“We know Darwin only explores our street and the next one over.
“Even if you don’t like cats, you don’t go around shooting them.”
RSPCA Inspector Jack Taylor said: “It’s understandably been very distressing for Darwin’s owners to learn that their cat has been shot and it’s caused considerable pain to poor Darwin himself.
“It is always very distressing to think that people may be taking pleasure in causing such horrific injuries to defenceless animals.
“We want to see a world where every kind of animal is treated with compassion and respect and deliberate and brutal acts of cruelty should be consigned to the past.
“We continue to call for tighter controls on air weapons.”
Darwin is now two weeks into his six-week cage rest and still has a lot of healing to do.
Lesley explained: “Darwin is such a handsome, lovely lad, but he’s very miserable and fed-up at the moment whilst he’s on cage rest.
“What’s been really tough is that we have pet insurance for Darwin but it wouldn’t cover us for the full cost of surgery.
“Surgery would have been £3,000 and we’re both pensioners, we just couldn’t afford that.
“The next best thing was to have a sock put on his leg and to put him on cage rest which allows the leg to heal but as Darwin is so used to going out, he’s miserable being cooped up.”
