A nine-month-old kitten is lucky to be alive after being shot by an air rifle in Calne last week.

Vets found that Kayfer, who lives with owners Sharon and David Seymour in Penhill Road, had a small bullet wound on the right side of her body.

X-rays showed that the bullet is lodged just under the skin on her left side, having miraculously avoided serious injury to her organs.

Mrs Seymour, who works for the NHS, said she has been too worried about her pet to be angry at the callous shooter.

“I have been so worried that I’ve not yet started focusing on what sort of person could do something like this,” she said.

“What most worries me is that someone could have deliberately done this to a kitten. There are a lot of cats around here, and I don’t want this to happen to anyone else’s pet.”

She said she found Kayfer huddling under a friend and neighbour’s decking on March 9 after searching for the kitten when she returned from work.

“Kayfer is the loveliest cat – she is very cuddly and she always comes to say hello when we call her,” said Mrs Seymour.

“But she stayed under the decking until around midnight, and she was walking very tenderly. We took a look at her and there was a tuft in her side. We picked her up and looked and we could see a pea-sized hole.”

Mr Seymour rushed the kitten to the vet as she was struggling to breathe and did not want to eat or drink, and she was booked in for surgery on March 12, but vets discovered she was too poorly to be operated on.

“She was on a drip as she was so dehydrated and under the weather,” said Mrs Seymour, who tried to give the kitten water through a syringe at the weekend.

“They sedated and X-rayed her, and that’s when they spotted the bullet.

“We don’t yet know what damage has been done, but when Kayfer recovers, she’ll undergo surgery to take it out.

“She’s now off the drip and making a slow recovery, but it has been a horrible week and I don’t like to think about what might have happened.”

Vets’ bills for Kayfer’s recovery have already reached almost £500, but Mrs Seymour says she just wants her pet to recover soon.

She said: “How could anyone be so mean as to take a pot shot at her?

“We are now really nervous about letting her out of the house again in case it happens again.”

To give information to Calne police, call the new 101 number.