A PET owner today expressed her anger after her cat was shot in the leg with an air weapon.

Susan Talbot, 65, said she was “really devastated” by the cruel act which resulted in her two-year-old cat Lilly having her leg amputated.

Lilly was shot in the leg on Monday, July 23, sometime between 6pm and 8pm, near her home in Aster Road.

Mrs Talbot said: “She’d had her tea and gone out and she came in and her foot was all limp.

“I thought she’d been in a fight, but the vet said it was too clean. It had smashed her bone in two.”

Due to the severity of the injury, the vet decided to amputate Lilly’s front left leg.

“I’m angry about it,” Mrs Talbot said. “I know there’s a lot of people who don’t like cats, but it’s just cruel.”

Mrs Talbot also has another cat, Lilly’s sister Tinkerbell. She got both cats as company when she retired.

“There’s a lot of us round here that have got cats and we’re all worried it’s going to happen again,” she said.

Although the vet is pleased with how Lilly is coping with life on three legs, Mrs Talbot said she’s clearly been affected by the trauma.

“She’s managing to get up the stairs and she’s eating fine, but she’s not the same cat,” she said. “I’m really devastated. At first I kept crying but now I’m angry.

“It’s heartbreaking to think she’ll be hopping about for the rest of her life.

“To think things like that can happen, I can’t understand why people do things like that.”

Police are asking anyone with information about how Lilly was injured to call PC Kim Butler on 101.

n Has your pet been cruelly injured? Write to Your Letters, Ipswich Star, 30 Lower Brook Street, Ipswich IP4 1AN, or e-mail starletters@archant.co.uk