Elderly couple’s cat shot by thugs

Brian and Diana Goodwin were horrified when their 10-year-old pet moggy Oswald crawled into the house on Saturday with a wound in his thigh.

A friend of the couple – who find getting about difficult – took Oswald to a vet, who confirmed the cat had been shot with a pellet gun.

“The wound is near his spine” said 82-year-old Brian, a retired teacher.

“I knew he had been shot because you could see the hole where the pellet went in. He could hardly even crawl.

“I can’t believe someone would do this to an animal. I know where I would put my pellet gun if I found out who did it.”

Oswald – or Ozy as he is known – is recovering from his attack at the family home on Davian Way in Walton.

Diana, 75, said: “He still can’t move. He is in the same position he was when we brought him back.

“I think it is disgusting that someone could shoot a cat.”

It comes after another pet owner found her cat shot on the same estate last August. Lisa Hatton, 47, who lives on Wentworth Avenue, said her pet Lily was shot by a hunter’s pellet that pierced her bowel.

“Her bowel was leaking in her body and slowly poisoning her” said cat-lover Lisa. “If we hadn’t taken her to the vet when we did, she would have died.”

The vet had to cut Lily open and clean her insides, before sewing up her bowel and stomach.

Lisa added: “It makes me feel sick that someone is doing this to animals, and to think it could be the same person. For somebody to do what they have done, they must be a very cold and callous person and they need to be stopped.”

A police spokesperon said: “It is very distressing for owners when their animals are killed or injured by air weapons.

“If anyone has any information that would help to identify the person responsible for this incident should contact the local police on 101.”