Cat shot 11 times

Risidale cat Mystery may have many more than just the requisite nine feline lives. This cat is still standing – or at least still breathing – after being shot 11 times at point-blank range with a pellet gun.

Cheryl Nicholson, Mystery’s defacto owner, woke up on 23 July to the cries of her cat. When she and her family rushed downstairs, they discovered that he was struggling to get up.

“We noticed his right back leg was hanging limply, and he was covered by lacerations,” Nicholson said on 4 August.

“We thought he was hit by a car and we rushed him to the vet. Once he had been operated on were we made aware of the absolute trauma and cruelty he had been through.”

The vet discovered that his femur had been shattered into seven pieces. X-ray’s revealed that Mystery had not only been shot once, but 11 times. One shot was in the back of the cat’s head – execution style – one pellet is still lodged in his spinal column, and there is still one pellet lodged 1mm away from his heart. The remainder of the pellets were scattered all over his body.

Nicholson’s daughter Jenine said the cruelty to this animal went further. “The vet told us that Mystery was shot by a pellet gun that had to be constantly reloaded. Whoever shot the cat repeatedly, loaded eleven bullets into his body at close range. It was no accident.”

Nicholson said she is not a cat person at all.

“For a long time, Mystery was simply a cat who sunned himself in my driveway in the afternoon. Then in June, we found the selfsame white cat in distress, lying in front of my door, seemingly ready to die. I didn’t want to take it in – but my daughter Jenine and granddaughter Danelle begged and pleaded with me.”

Mystery has both feline Aids and feline leukemia, and Nicholson had to choose between taking the sick cat in or letting the SPCA put him out.

“I grudgingly took him in, and in a short time Mystery crawled into my heart completely. Suddenly I was a cat person.”

Mystery went missing on 17 July, and Nicholson assumed that the cat didn’t like the noise of the builders renovating in the complex. “We searched for him and put up posters, not guessing what horrors had actually happened to him.”

Mystery is currently recovering in the Blue Bush Animal Clinic, and community members have overwhelmed the Nicholson’s with donations toward the cat’s hospital bill.

“He is a real little fighter,” Jenine Nicholson said. “But what happened to him is inexcusable. We want to make people and parents aware of the damage that pellet and air guns can cause.”

Nicholson is appealing to anyone in the community with information to contact her on 073 150 9799.

*Randburg SPCA said they will be pressing charges and a criminal case will be opened.