Cat shooting ordeal for devastated family

A pet cat was shot several times in a Black Country family's back garden - two years after a similar attack left one animal dead.

The Powell family had only just begun allowing their five pets outside again after two were shot while in the garden of their home in Laburnum Road, Bentley, in 2008, killing cat Katie.

But three-year-old Tink is currently fighting for her life while undergoing specialist veterinary care in Derby, after bullets from an air gun punctured her intestine. The attack came less than a fortnight after the shooting of a cat in Chester Road, Streetly.

Police are now investigating.

Jane Powell, who shares the cats with husband Nick and children Joe, aged 18, Emma, 16, and Jessica, 13, said the family were devastated - and were even thinking of moving home.

"It's just been awful," she said.

"We had just started letting them out again, so they had only been in the garden for days.

"It's just terrible to think that someone could shoot them while they are in out garden.

"My husband had built a pen for them in the garden and only took it down last weekend."

She appealed to those responsible to own up.

"I don't think the people who did this can realise the consequences, both for us and the cat," she said.

"She has already had to have part of her intestine and spleen removed and is really in a critical condition. And Jessica has just been sobbing and sobbing. It's very worrying that this is the second time a cat has been shot in the borough in the last month."

West Midlands Police spokeswoman Gina Lycett said police were looking into the attack, which happened between 5pm and 5.30pm last Tuesday and asked anyone with information to contact officers at Bloxwich on 0845 1135000.