All Donna La Rose could do was scream when her cat Ozzy walked toward her with a large crossbow arrow through his torso.
“I was just yelling and screaming ‘he’s been shot,’” Donna said holding her cat on her lap Tuesday morning. A large bandage wrapped Ozzy’s middle ,covering his shaved back and two stitched puncture wounds.
The feline was missing for a few days before he was spotted by Donna in the La Rose’s Jacklin Road yard between the apple tree and the garden.
Her husband Ron was in the house and came running into the yard in his socks.
“I am pretty sure it was deliberate,” Ron said.
Ozzy was shot with a crossbow bolt about 40 centimetres long.
“It was very close to his spine and close to his lung,” Ron said. “He’s a pretty lucky cat. If it had been an inch either way he would have died.”
The injuries were deemed life threatening, but Ozzy is expected to make a full recovery.
“The vet said she’s never seen anything like this at all,” Donna said.
Ron removed the tip of the arrow, a field point, making it a little easier for the arrow to be removed.
Since the attack, Ozzy has been recovering as an indoor cat, and the couple are unsure if he’ll ever be an outdoor cat again.
Ozzy had been missing since Sept. 30. The 11-year-old cat hadn’t taken off from his Langford home in years. He retuned home on Oct. 5.
The couple have had pets, cats and dogs, for the past 21 years and never have they had one of their animals attacked.
West Shore RCMP are investigating the incident.