Naruto, our extremely EVIL CAT came home last night after he had been away for two days. Nothing unusual in that, he is often away for days at a time.
He came home in a state even worse than usual after one of his regular jaunts. He had a cut on his ear (his good one, the other has been slightly ripped off a few years ago), puncture wounds on his face, and a very bloody nose. All of this is actually quite normal for Naruto the EVIL CAT. Ever since he appeared outside our door 4 or so years ago at only a couple of months of age he has been on a mission to DESTROY all other Cats in the vicinity. For him I think this means all Cats in the World.
He is a roamer, he actually disappeared for 10 days a few months ago the day the worst snow began to fall since I was 7, over 30 years ago. Nowhere had less then 3 ft of snow yet he sauntered home ten days later wondering why his food was not out NOW.
Anyway, inspecting him last night to see the extent of his latest injuries I was surprised to see a little metal circle just below his eye. It is about 3mm wide and has a hollow in the middle. I am assuming it is some kind of bullet from a pellet gun. He actually seemed less concerned with the state of his face then with the fact that his food was not out NOW. He did, however deign to spend the night on our bed, which he has not done for years. Normally he is out at night trying to ELIMINATE THE COMPETITION.
He is currently on his way with the good lady to the Vets. I put him in a cardboard box before he had time to object but I hope the Vet has some thick gloves for when it gets opened. He has never been to the vets before as his injuries are pretty much constant and it would make no sense as he would just be out the next day fighting and it would never end.
Hopefully he will be fine as he is one tough cookie. I have seen him chase a native wild Cat twice his size to the end of an Olive tree and then simply sit at the base of it and gloat and dare it to get down. Nothing stands in his way and woe betide the person who shot him once he gets his latest wound mended.
What I wonder is:
WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH PEOPLE?
I don’t know what he was doing to get shot. Obviously he has been fighting. But we live over a mile from any neighbours, our community is rural, Cats are left to roam and wander and many of the villagers never spay their female Cats, rather they drown the kittens instead (I know). This is the reality of living in rural Spain. Many will object to my attitude to our Cat but he appeared nearly dead at about the size of a fist so he stayed, what else could I do? But why shoot my EVIL CAT? The pellet or whatever it is was not big enough to kill him from any range (I assume), rather it seems simply an act of cruelty for its own sake. If he was up to no good then someone could have scared him away without resorting to such measures.
All I can say is they better have a face mask on the next time NARUTO THE EVIL CAT comes across them as I get the feeling he is going to RIP THEIR FACE OFF.
Hopefully he will be fine later today when he returns and if anyone can confirm that this is what pellets look like after they have hit something I would be grateful for the info. Technical details in a foreign language often get misinterpreted so anyone who has experience with pellet guns can you confirm what they look like?
UPDATE: Naruto has returned from the Vets. He had a quick sedative injection then was examined. He actually had 3 pellets in him! One below his eye, one in his tongue right at the back and one in his lower jaw just below a tooth. He is currently staggering around trying not to fall over. I get the feeling he gearing up for a HORRIBLE REVENGE.
Wow. Sometimes one is left wondering. Thought on the other hand, if he attacked my dog it wouldn’t have been a good decision for him… I am a meek and peace loving person, but nobody will mess with my babies. Mess with my dogs and you’ll meet the monster in me.
I never aimed to hurt when protection my dogs, but also never had to go that far. I guess I get scary enough so I don’t have to resort to violence. But don’t mess with a mommy protecting her babies. I had bit nasty dogs run away from me in my righteous fury. They didn’t even try to argue.
So as long as mutual consensus (you leave my dogs alone and you can live) can be reached, there is no need for violent acts. If that failed …
Oops, that was supposed to be BIG nasty dogs.
Living currently in Greece and I have enjoyed reading your blog. We moved here two and a bit years ago with one dog and have since then had many puppies (which we found homes for) and taken care of many cats in our neighborhood. Same mentality here. Stray cats, dogs, no steralization, kittens, puppies, never ending cycle. We found one of our cats, Timothy, in a simliar state to what you described. Took him to the vet and they thought his diaphragm was ruptured, but x-rays revealed that he had in fact been shot, not once but twice. Timothy is not really an evil cat, he is just a bit frisky with a temper, still no reason to be shot! We live in an urban Athens area, so this act was committed by one of our neighbors. With a 50/50 chance of survival he has since then fallen off the roof (3 stories), gotten hit by something that made him break his nose and has had many infections for unknown reasons. Unfortunately his sister only had once chance with a car and lost the battle. I hear, hear “what the hell is wrong with people”, I normally ask this question on a daily basis here. All I can say is this…karma.
Cecilia,
Thanks for the comments. Nice to hear from you. I hear you with the Karma, our Naruto is as tough as your Timothy sounds but I do wonder about how people can be so cruel. How can they think it is funny or entertaining. I understand hunting, which goes on here all the time but for some kind of sick sport just to hurt things….well.
Cats always seem to take the abuse from kids that have problems abusing animals. Poor thing, 🙁
OK I still need to send you a video of my cat squealing for his food. I really do think my cat is more annoying than yours when it comes to demanding food.
I’m glad your poor cat is OK. Yikes.
Lindsay, I might just make a video of mine too. Let’s see who’s Cat is the most annoying 😉
I wonder if the person who shot the cat was on drugs. There’s been cases of cruelty to animals by youngsters who are into drugs & satanism.
I hope the cat is OK now.