Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

After I saw someone complaining about their dog being reported as abused, I felt free to share our story.  We have been having a horrible time, and everybody is stressed.

 

On Saturday afternoon, someone shot one of my daughter's cats with a pellet gun.  It went through his abdomen, perforating his gut in three places, and lodged in the muscle on the opposite side.  We didn't realize until Sunday that he had been vomiting from the gut wounds, or we would have had him to the vet sooner.  When we first heard him, we thought he'd eaten something that disagreed with him.  The entrance wound was not immediately obvious.  I found it when I took him out of the crate to weigh him at the vet's office Sunday afternoon.

 

Sunday night the cat had emergency surgery to remove the pellet and fix his intestines.  Monday he seemed to be doing well, but he developed liver complications Tuesday and had to have a feeding tube inserted.  I haven't heard from the vet today (I assume they'd've called me right away if he'd died or needed something else), so I'm not sure what's going on.  If all goes well he'll come home tomorrow.

 

We believe our neighbor to be the culprit.  He raises those tumbling pigeons, and this cat had developed a taste for pigeon.  I offered to help him cat proof his yard, which would also keep out the 'possums and raccoons, but he declined.  I told him we were going to get an invisible fence eventually, and we had an agreement that we would let us know if the cat was being a nuisance and get him out of the yard and confine him so the pigeons could be flown.  Instead, it appears he shot the cat!  A few weeks ago, not sure exactly when, he brought the cat home while my daughter was home alone and told her she was lucky he hadn't shot the cat.  My daughter didn't take him seriously.  I think what added to him going ahead and shooting the cat was that he was reported for having his dog tied to the fence.  Law in California, you cannot tie a dog to a stationary object for more than 3 hours a day.  I think he thought we reported him.  It was actually the nice ladies who brought us our new dog!

 

The vet bill is enormous, and I don't know how we'll pay it, but I can't just let this sweet little cat die.  Thanks for letting me vent....