Tessie, the beloved tabby companion of Kathy Dodd, had been outside less than 15 minutes when Ms Dodd noticed something was desperately wrong after seeing the cat struggling to climb the single step to the door after leaving a blood trail up the path.
"I rushed out to pick her up. I realised she was paralysed from the middle of the body down.
"I don’t know how she managed to get back here, but she couldn’t have been far away because she couldn’t move any more.
"The bullet went through her spine, splattered all her vertebrae and went through her body, into her stomach and messed it all up.
"The vet couldn’t do anything for her, so I had to put her down there and then because she was in a lot of pain.
"It broke my heart."
Ms Dodd said she was devastated by the loss of her faithful tabby companion who came to live with her five years ago as an SPCA rescue animal.
"A lot of people don’t understand. They think a cat is just a cat. To me she was my absolutely favourite person. I’m going to miss her terribly.
"I’ve had a lot of cats, but I’ve never had one so affectionate ... one that was so wanting to be with me ... a constant companion."
Elles Road Veterinary Centre veterinarian Sandy Cooper confirmed Tessie had been shot through the spine and received mortal internal organ damage from the single shot.
Ms Dodd filed a complaint with the police on Saturday evening, on her way home from the vet.
The Invercargill police have confirmed the file has been referred to the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals to investigate.
Ms Dodd was also concerned about the safety aspect of the shooting as she lived beside a sports ground and close to a playground.
"I’m in a residential area, and somebody shouldn’t be shooting anything in a residential area."
"I went to the police, and they told me they couldn’t do anything — it’s all up to the SPCA to investigate.
"I was brassed off with that reaction, to be honest."
Ms Cooper believed it was unacceptable to expect SPCA staff to investigate incidents where firearms were involved.
"The SPCA can’t go off to someone who is waving a gun about ... We need to find this perpetrator as soon as possible to stop them from doing this. It’s a criminal offence and quite scary there is someone out there doing this when you are not allowed to discharge a firearm within the city boundary, let alone cause injury to any animal at all."
The police declined to comment in regard to a firearm being discharged within an urban area but did ask the public to immediately report any incident they had witnessed.
Invercargill SPCA was unavailable for comment.
— Toni McDonald
