A Princeton man is warning others to watch out for their pets after his family’s 10-year-old cat was apparently shot last week with a pellet gun.
Christian Jensen said he first noticed something wrong with the cat, Remington, last Thursday when he saw some blood on the animal’s leg.
The following day Remington was failing.
“He was acting lethargic and he was not eating and drinking and I knew something was up at that point,” he said in an interview with The Spotlight.
“I had heard rumors that cats were being poisoned and thought maybe he was getting into something.”
Jensen’s wife drove the sick kitty to an animal hospital in Kamloops, where an x-ray revealed a pellet lodged near the cat’s stomach.
“I didn’t think people were that cruel,” he said. “At the time I was livid. I was shaking.”
Related: Cat shot five times with BB gun needs help with recovery on Vancouver Island
Remington, who grew up on a farm, is an outdoor cat and Jensen knows some people find them to be nuisances.
“I can see both sides of it. Cats go outside and they kill mice and they kill birds and I can see people getting upset by a cat using the garden as a litter box.”
While he has no idea if someone shot Remington for those reasons, he said there is no excuse.
“You can shoot them with a hose. That will get rid of them as well.”
Jensen, who has contacted RCMP, said the culprit could also be a reckless young person.
The vet and the Jensen family briefly considered surgery for Remington, but decided instead on a therapy of fluids and pain killers.
“He’s eating again, he’s drinking again and he is walking around. He’s recovering, we are pretty sure.”
The emergency room visit was a $500 expense, but Jensen said it’s well worth the money.
“Growing up I had cats that have gone missing and cats that we’ve had to put down and stuff like that. When something like this happens, and if you can do something about it and you have the means to do so, I think that’s just responsible.”
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