A Scots woman has hit out after a cat belonging to her dead mum was blasted with an air weapon leaving him permanently disabled.
Lesleyanne Ritchie initially thought 10-year-old Buttons had been fighting when he was found lying injured in a neighbour’s garden on May 10.
But when the moggy, who was originally owned by her mum Elspeth Clark before she died aged 64 in 2015, was unable to stand up the following morning, he was rushed to the vets.
Medics were horrified to discover a pellet was lodged in his shoulder leaving him unable to use one of his front legs with the back one ‘dragging’.
Lesleyanne and her siblings have decided against surgery to remove the pellet or having his one leg removed over fears it could cause further damage or discomfort.
Buttons will now live out his days as an indoor cat at his home in Leslie, Fife, with trips into the garden on a harness due to the irreversible nerve damage.
Police Scotland confirmed they are investigating the incident with enquiries to catch the culprit ongoing.
Lesleyanne said: “Buttons was my mum’s cat and that’s all we’ve got left of her.
“She always wanted a black cat so she got him but then she died about a year before she passed. I had moved into her house so he stays with me.
“He went out there on Tuesday morning as normal and then a few hours later, because of the actions of someone, his life has changed completely.
“There’s another cat in the area that’s been missing for a few days and it’s just filled me with dread because I’m thinking, is there someone out there that’s targeting them?
“When I called the police, I said to them that I know they’d probably think it’s just a cat but they came straight out to see me and they were really good.
“They said it was a crime and it didn’t matter if it was a cat, a dog or a child.
“At first, the vets wanted to monitor him for a few days to see if there was any change to his mobility before deciding whether to operate so he came home before going back on Monday.
“There is a big improvement. He can stand and he can walk but his left front leg is completely unusable - it just hangs there. And his left back leg just drags.
“He’s wobbly because both affected legs are obviously on the same side. The vet was happy with the improvement but said that it’s as good as he’s going to get.
“They were talking about amputating his front leg and the police wanted us to get the pellet out. But Buttons is 10-years-old.
“The damage is already done by the pellet going on so we don’t know what damage could be caused by it being taken out and him going under anaesthetic.
“I’ve got two sisters and a brother, so I asked them all their opinion on what we should do. “But we’ve decided that we’re not going to put him through that. He’s been through enough.
“Because of the nerve damage, he can’t jump but he’s now able to walk around a bit better.”
The 52-year-old told how Buttons was found lying in a neighbour’s garden but thought he was just sunbathing in peace away from her brother’s dogs.
She first became alarmed when a neighbour carried him to her door - something the feisty moggy wouldn’t normally tolerate.
Lesleyanne explained: “My neighbour was walking up the path carrying him which was strange because normally Buttons doesn’t let anybody touch him.
“When he handed him over, I could feel a stickiness and realised he was bleeding from the tiniest nick on his neck. I thought he’d been fighting so I carried him in the house and put him in his bed.
“I didn’t really notice anything then but in the morning, he normally gets me up demanding his breakfast. He’s normally at my feet, squawking for his food and goes out. But he was still lying in his bed.
“I made his breakfast and normally when he hears the tin, he’s there, but he wasn’t coming. I went over to him and tried to put him on the floor but he just collapsed. I tried again and the same thing happened.
“That’s when I realised and I called the vet who told me to bring him straight down. They thought it was a puncture wound from a bite but they kept him and asked to do x-rays.
“Then they called me and told me they had an answer but it wasn’t good. They said he had been shot and it was a pellet that was in him.
“You could have knocked me over with a feather because I was just expecting that he had been in a fight and was sore from that.
“I’m going to keep him as an indoor cat now but we’re taking it a day at a time because he was a really active cat. It’s just heartbreaking because of what he used to be like.”
Confirming the probe, a Police Scotland spokesperson said: “Around 12.20pm on Wednesday, 11 May, police received a report that a cat had been injured after being shot by an air weapon in Leslie, Glenrothes.
“Enquiries are ongoing.”
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