A CAT shot by an air rifle survived after a pellet fractured its skull before becoming lodged in its eye but may still be left with brain damage.

The shooting of Sparkles is the latest of a series of cats being shot with air rifles in the March area prompting the RSPCA to issue a public appeal.

The owner of eight-year-old Sparkles, Mandy Wright, has spoken out about her cat’s injuries after reading how another cat was shot with an air rifle only days before.

“The vet was very surprised she had survived - the pellet went in through her neck, up through her brain fracturing her skull then lodged in her eye,” she said.

“It just makes me really cross that someone would do something like that.”

Sparkles went missing on Saturday, April 21, before returning on the following Tuesday with a sore eye. It was only when Mrs Wright, of Coates, took her to the vet did they realise she had been shot.

“I put posters up to see if somebody with a guilty conscience would come forward,” she added.

Mrs Wright said the incident had left her two children sad and distressed and her husband, angry.

“Emotionally and financially, it’s awful,” she said.

The family are waiting to hear whether Sparkles will lose her sight and even her eye and could be left with brain damage.

A spokesman for the RSPCA said there had been at least three similar incidents in the March and Whittlesey area since November.

Inspectors are not linking the attacks, which left one cat with a shattered elbow and another dead, but are keen to hear from the public with any information around the shootings.

RSPCA inspector Jon Knight said: “It is absolutely vital that if anyone saw anything suspicious or knows of anyone shooting at animals in the area that they come forward with information.

“People cannot be allowed to get away with causing such awful injuries.”

Those found guilty of causing unnecessary suffering to an animal can face a maximum six-month prison sentence, and/or a �20,000 fine.

The RSPCA received 201 reports of cats being shot in 2011. It is believed this is just the tip of the iceberg as many attacks go unreported and some owners don’t even realise that their pets have been shot.