I'M So Angry!! Ringo has been shot with a BB Gun

"sheelagh" wrote in message
ups.com...


I do blame myself for it happening to him, but I am still outraged
that anyone would do this to the sweetest friendliest cat on the
block.

Sheelagh,

It's a horrible, totally unexpected thing to have happen. The UK has always
seemed to be a safer place--not nearly as many predators and less guns as
opposed to many places in the US. I wish I could let my cats outside but we
live in a rural area (in the wild, wild west!) and there are too many
predators around here. Just today the local paper had an article about a
retriever/lab mix that was killed by a mountain lion in the back yard on the
outskirts of a town about 45 minutes away from where we live. We also have
coyotes, raccoons, rattlesnakes (although cats are usually pretty smart
around snakes), hawks, to name a few. It's awful when you start having to
worry about BB gun toting people as well.

It seems really wrong that they get away with it. You hardly ever hear of
anyone getting as far as court when things like this happen..


I know--although I have heard of stricter sentences being handed down, of
actual jail time in more and more cases of animal abuse. It's not nearly
enough and certainly not very consistent.


Your right, I seem to have spent a hell of a lot of time @ the vets
recently, but then again I wouldn't have it any other way. At least I
feel that I can trust this surgery & I do have full confidence in them
too.


So good to hear--I absolutely love my vet. It helps so much to have
confidence in your vet! She's great with the animals, is very good at
listening to what I have to say and is very open to new ideas. She
encourages me to research stuff on my own. She's refered me to specialists
when it was warranted. In a crisis, it's really nice not to be
second-guessing the vet!


Tiggy came home yesterday afternoon with a horrible bill, that they
have kindly allowed me to pay in three instalments ...

( you have no idea how embarrassing it was having to ask if that was
possible)
blush!!

It's happened to most of us--they know how much you've had to spend lately!
Do they provide volume discounts?!? My vet seems to not charge for every
single item when the bill gets beyond a certain point which is always nice!

Tiggy is soo much better now;o)

We have given over the extension to her so that she has her own
personal space away from all of the other cats, with her own bowl,
feeding trough & litter too...
She still looks a little delicate, but that should pass soon
hopefully. We were given pain meds for the 1st time ever too.
I was shocked when I saw everyone posting pain meds, because we
have NEVER been offered any for the other cats before Tiggy's op. I
was shocked!!


Yeah!! Glad she's feeling better! The pain meds help with healing sooo
much. Pain causes a tremendous amount of stress, not at all helpful in
healing.

Sheelagh, take care--you've had more than your share of cat problems lately!

Bonnie

On 23 Mar, 16:21, "sheelagh" wrote:
Words fail me....
Last night I went outside to call Ringo in & when there was no
response, I knew in my gut that there was something Very Wrong Because
Ringo is always here for dinner time....

I searched the front of the house, then out the back, but there was no
Ringo.
I decided to leave it half an hour but when the time was up, we set
out on a search party to see where he was hanging out & why he had not
simply come home when we called him. By this time I was in near
frantic panic, because it is soooo out of character....

Our neighbors kids joined in the search,& by 7.15pm we had over 8
people looking for him - he is ever such a popular puss because he is
so friendly & will allow anyone to give him tunny tickles..
We continued to search, & kept in contact by mobile (cell phone!)

At around 8.10pm, my son Ross found him. He was lying on his side in
the meadow under a hedge panting. Ross called me right away & when I
reached him, I could see that Ringo was panting & he had blood all
over his fur just under his left eye & just under his right fore leg.
I didn't have to guess too long to see what had happened to him...
He had been shot, but I wasn't sure what with.

Paul joined me, & we lifted him up onto a board & covered him with a
blanket. I called the vet from the meadow & asked if he would see
Ringo, & he told us to handle whim with care & bring him straight down
there.
It was obvious that Ringo was in shock & shivering too. I had no idea
how long he had lain there, but the last time I could remember seeing
him, was around 5.30pm, so we don't know what time this had happened.
You wouldn't believe how fast my trusty old Ford escort shot down the
motorway, I would never have believed it could go that fast,
seriously!!

On arrival, we were met, & he was seen straight away. I went into the
consultation room with him, & the vet had a quick look & told me that
he had to get an xray done as fast as possible, & then onto theater if
nessacery to get the pellets out, because he was conerned that the
pellet might have penetrated some of his organs & the fear of him
dying of shock was quite possible, so they wanted to get him seen to
as fast as possible, so we left them to get on with it.

It is such a terrible feeling You feel so helpless;o(

The vet already had assisting staff to help him because they have a 24
hour facility, so they were able to proceed immediately...
We were told to go home and that they would call us as soon as they
had any news for us. Just over an hour and a half later, we got a call
to say that Ringo had got through the surgery. They managed to get the
pellet out of his foreleg & it was logged into his bone, & also that
he had got the pellet out of his jaw, but he wasn't sure if Ringo lost
his sight in his out of his left eye, because it was logged so near to
the optic nerve that he did consider leaving it in case he caused more
damage than was already done. He also told us that the one in his leg
was shot at almost blank rang too

As you can imagine, we shot down there to see him, but he was very
sedated, & didn't manage much more than a hand lick & an ear tickle.
I Can't describe the RAGE that we feel, knowing that someone who lives
near us had thought it funny to shoot him ,quite possibly knowing that
it was our cat too..
Whilst waiting for Ringo to come out of surgery, we called the police
to alert them to the fact that we have a loose canon in the
neighborhood, & we also called the RSPCA to alert them too, only to
find out that Ringo was only one of four cats who had been shot
yesterday on our nearest estate.
I feel sick to the pit of my stomach knowing that someone could
possibly do that to a poor defenseless cat, who has done them no harm
at all. How could anyone shoot a cat at blank range? It wouldn't
surprise me if it turns out to be a child who's parents have bought it
for them as a gift.....

THEY SHOULD BE MADE ILLEGAL...!!!!!
Sorry, but I feel so ANGRY

Ringo is still in special care room, but doing much better today. He
remains sedated & is responding well. He still has his hydration drip
in his other fore leg, but he did try to lap some water earlier today.
He looks like a mini mummy with all of the bandages round his head and
his leg where they splinted him & strapped him under his fore leg..

My kids are keeping their ears open to see if they can find out who
has a new BB pellet gun recently, Or who was in the meadow last night
around the same time last night. No doubt even if we do find out how
it was, the worst that will happen is that they *MIGHT* get a rap on
the knuckles & a public caution. In fact the best thing we could hope
for, is for the police to remeove the gun to stop it happening
again..If we are lucky, that is
Whats to stop them going straight out to buy another one tomorrow..?
I hope that I don't find out who did it, because right now, I am too
angry to deal with it
The boys used to wonder why I wouldn't allow them to have a BB gun, &
yesterday the learnt exactly why..not one of them wants one now. I
think that they are as outraged as we are

Sheelagh

i am so angry too, whoever it was who did needs to have the living
crap beaten out of them and fast. It may have been kids 'playing' in
which case if they are let out and thinks it is ok top shoot at
innocent creatures them they need to be punished for it, very severely
as they obviously have not let learnt to respect life and their
parents have obviously not bothered to teach them that kind of
behaviour is utterly wrong.

personally if someone did that to one of my kitties (now we have 2,
terri the dark tortie seems to be staying now) yes I would report it
to the police etc but then i would not wait about for them to do
anything, I would just start hanging out in the meadow myself with a
large cricket bat and a few big mates and dish out some justice of my
own, my anger woudl not allow me to stay away.

Seriously you may catch them if you do go an hang around the meadow
inthe afternoon/evening, sounds like these are the kind of cretins who
are likely to go back to the same place again to see what else they
can shoot at. if you do not want to make a citizens arrest or whatever
then take photos of them as evidence, but if they know the place is
being patrolled then they will be unlikely to do it again which coudl
save other poor kitties fromthe same fate.

this kind of thing just really ****es me off, so typical of the youth
of today, not taught by their parents to respect animals or other life
at all. If they got a good beating fopr it they woudl never do it
again i can assure you, but with today's PC culture of not touchign
the little darlings they know they can get away with anything and not
get punished, furthermore they never learn to feel the kind of pain
which they are inflicting on others such as poor ringo.

purrs for both jessie and terri and me, I really hope ringo gets
better and you catch these evil little ****s, I will gladly come up
there and help you find them if you want!

bookie

On Mar 23, 12:21 pm, "sheelagh" wrote:
Words fail me....
Last night I went outside to call Ringo in & when there was no
response, I knew in my gut that there was something Very Wrong Because
Ringo is always here for dinner time....

I searched the front of the house, then out the back, but there was no
Ringo.
I decided to leave it half an hour but when the time was up, we set
out on a search party to see where he was hanging out & why he had not
simply come home when we called him. By this time I was in near
frantic panic, because it is soooo out of character....

Our neighbors kids joined in the search,& by 7.15pm we had over 8
people looking for him - he is ever such a popular puss because he is
so friendly & will allow anyone to give him tunny tickles..
We continued to search, & kept in contact by mobile (cell phone!)

At around 8.10pm, my son Ross found him. He was lying on his side in
the meadow under a hedge panting. Ross called me right away & when I
reached him, I could see that Ringo was panting & he had blood all
over his fur just under his left eye & just under his right fore leg.
I didn't have to guess too long to see what had happened to him...
He had been shot, but I wasn't sure what with.

Sheelagh, I'm very sorry to hear this! I hope Ringo recovers
completely.

Paul joined me, & we lifted him up onto a board & covered him with a
blanket. I called the vet from the meadow & asked if he would see
Ringo, & he told us to handle whim with care & bring him straight down
there.
It was obvious that Ringo was in shock & shivering too. I had no idea
how long he had lain there, but the last time I could remember seeing
him, was around 5.30pm, so we don't know what time this had happened.
You wouldn't believe how fast my trusty old Ford escort shot down the
motorway, I would never have believed it could go that fast,
seriously!!

On arrival, we were met, & he was seen straight away. I went into the
consultation room with him, & the vet had a quick look & told me that
he had to get an xray done as fast as possible, & then onto theater if
nessacery to get the pellets out, because he was conerned that the
pellet might have penetrated some of his organs & the fear of him
dying of shock was quite possible, so they wanted to get him seen to
as fast as possible, so we left them to get on with it.

It is such a terrible feeling You feel so helpless;o(

The vet already had assisting staff to help him because they have a 24
hour facility, so they were able to proceed immediately...
We were told to go home and that they would call us as soon as they
had any news for us. Just over an hour and a half later, we got a call
to say that Ringo had got through the surgery. They managed to get the
pellet out of his foreleg & it was logged into his bone, & also that
he had got the pellet out of his jaw, but he wasn't sure if Ringo lost
his sight in his out of his left eye, because it was logged so near to
the optic nerve that he did consider leaving it in case he caused more
damage than was already done. He also told us that the one in his leg
was shot at almost blank rang too

As you can imagine, we shot down there to see him, but he was very
sedated, & didn't manage much more than a hand lick & an ear tickle.
I Can't describe the RAGE that we feel, knowing that someone who lives
near us had thought it funny to shoot him ,quite possibly knowing that
it was our cat too..
Whilst waiting for Ringo to come out of surgery, we called the police
to alert them to the fact that we have a loose canon in the
neighborhood, & we also called the RSPCA to alert them too, only to
find out that Ringo was only one of four cats who had been shot
yesterday on our nearest estate.
I feel sick to the pit of my stomach knowing that someone could
possibly do that to a poor defenseless cat, who has done them no harm
at all. How could anyone shoot a cat at blank range? It wouldn't
surprise me if it turns out to be a child who's parents have bought it
for them as a gift.....

THEY SHOULD BE MADE ILLEGAL...!!!!!
Sorry, but I feel so ANGRY

Ringo is still in special care room, but doing much better today. He
remains sedated & is responding well. He still has his hydration drip
in his other fore leg, but he did try to lap some water earlier today.
He looks like a mini mummy with all of the bandages round his head and
his leg where they splinted him & strapped him under his fore leg..

My kids are keeping their ears open to see if they can find out who
has a new BB pellet gun recently, Or who was in the meadow last night
around the same time last night. No doubt even if we do find out how
it was, the worst that will happen is that they *MIGHT* get a rap on
the knuckles & a public caution. In fact the best thing we could hope
for, is for the police to remeove the gun to stop it happening
again..If we are lucky, that is

This has been slowly changing in the US; maybe it will start floating
across the Atlantic? We borrow so many ideas from each other, and the
idea of animal cruelty legislation came from the UK. Maybe with so
many cats shot in one area, the RSPCA will be able to make a push on
this?

Whats to stop them going straight out to buy another one tomorrow..?
I hope that I don't find out who did it, because right now, I am too
angry to deal with it
The boys used to wonder why I wouldn't allow them to have a BB gun, &
yesterday the learnt exactly why..not one of them wants one now. I
think that they are as outraged as we are

It's a hard lesson, when I'm sure THEY would never have thought of
using a BB gun that way. (Some things never change; I can remember my
cousins and I having much the same conversations with our parents,
forty years ago. "But we'll be very careful!" Got none of us anywhere,
I'm pleased to say.)

Lis

"Lynne" wrote in message
m...
on Fri, 23 Mar 2007 16:21:57 GMT, "sheelagh"
wrote:

I feel sick to the pit of my stomach knowing that someone could
possibly do that to a poor defenseless cat, who has done them no harm
at all.

Oh, Sheelagh... Oh my god. Poor Ringo. seriously bawling my eyes out
here

Me too.

I'm so devastated for you all, and so angry about what happened that
words fail me. Please keep us informed on Ringo's progress. I have a
special place in my heart for that boy. I'm just sick about this. I
can't
imagine the mix of emotions you must be feeling. I'm sure they are
overwhelming.

Try to stay strong, I know you've been through so much lately. You are
all
in my thoughts.

Me too. I don't have anything to add to this. I'm crying and want to kill
someone and feel like throwing up all at the same time. It's the same
emotion I feel about our Bullwinkle who is the gentlest, sweetest cat in the
whole world. He was a rescue who had been abused and abandoned. Everytime I
think of someone hurting this cat....I just don't have the words.
Best regards,
---Cindy S.

"sheelagh" wrote in message
ups.com...
Words fail me....
Last night I went outside to call Ringo in & when there was no
response, I knew in my gut that there was something Very Wrong Because
Ringo is always here for dinner time....



Sheelagh



I'm so sorry to hear someone shot your cat and hopes he recovers well. There
is no excuse for that kind of behavior.

This is one of many reasons that we encourage people to keep their cats
inside. It seems nowhere is safe from this kind of thing any more. Consider
building an outside enclosure where your guys can get fresh air but not be
subjected to the little beasts that do this kind of thing. If some beast
would take pot shots at a cat they aren't beyond doing worse to it.

Wendy

On Fri, 23 Mar 2007 10:12:10 -0700, sheelagh wrote:

On 23 Mar, 18:00, "cybercat" wrote:
"sheelagh" wrote

THEY SHOULD BE MADE ILLEGAL...!!!!!
Sorry, but I feel so ANGRY

All you have to do is keep him in.

I know that you are right Cyber...

I do normally keep him in, but he had been crying to go out, & I gave in
to him.
(have no excuses to hand out, because you are right)

Normally, he only sits in the back garden under the tree, but for some
reason yesterday he decided to wonder into the meadow...

I can't help likening it to a child being shot though. Both defenseless &
never asked for it to be done to them. However, it is only an instance...
I am aware that it is my own fault, & I don't feel very pleased or proud
of myself either
S.


Purrs for a complete recovery. I hope the police are able to confiscate
the gun so it won't happen to other animals. Best wishes. MLB

on Sat, 24 Mar 2007 00:26:43 GMT, mlbriggs wrote:

I hope the police are able to confiscate
the gun so it won't happen to other animals.

I wish they would also realize that youth who torture animals often grow up
to be psychopaths. They should toss the little brats into a mental ward,
for everyone's sake.

--
Lynne

"sheelagh" wrote in message
ups.com

Words fail me....
Last night I went outside to call Ringo in & when there was no
response, I knew in my gut that there was something Very Wrong Because
Ringo is always here for dinner time....////

Many purrs for a full recovery for Ringo.

I went through this last July with HRFL Tiger and Miss Lily Whiskers. In
the space of about 2 days approximately 14 cats were shot with a BB gun
in the area I live. The RSPCA fortunately nailed the b*stard who did it
with the police because someone had seen him do it, and all he got was
community service and a slap on the wrist. Then my brother caught up
with the perp. Miss Lily Whiskers is his cat.

Fortunately both made a full recovery, and we are sending purrs that
Ringo does the same.

Helen M


--
Posted via Mailgate.ORG Server - http://www.Mailgate.ORG

On Mar 23, 12:21 pm, "sheelagh" wrote:
snip

At around 8.10pm, my son Ross found him. He was lying on his side in
the meadow under a hedge panting. Ross called me right away & when I
reached him, I could see that Ringo was panting & he had blood all
over his fur just under his left eye & just under his right fore leg.
I didn't have to guess too long to see what had happened to him...
He had been shot, but I wasn't sure what with.

snip

Sheelagh

Oh my word, my eyes are welling up to great extent. I am so sorry...I
can't imagine how people can sleep at night sometimes. Ringo is lucky
to have such great parents and please know that our hearts and purrs
go out to you and your family. I pray for his speedy and full
recovery.

Devastating.

Sending my love,
Heather

On 24 Mar, 00:31, Lynne wrote:
on Sat, 24 Mar 2007 00:26:43 GMT, mlbriggs wrote:

I hope the police are able to confiscate
the gun so it won't happen to other animals.

I wish they would also realize that youth who torture animals often grow up
to be psychopaths. They should toss the little brats into a mental ward,
for everyone's sake.

--
Lynne

i agree, although a little bit of corporal punishment, a god beating
or something, should be dished out first before they get incarcerated
for life.

any news on how ringo is doing sheelagh? have you been hanging out in
the meadow to catch the little sods?

after i read you first post i just squeezed my 2 furballs so tightly
(much disgruntled moaning from them for that, very undignified you
see), i couldn't bear it if anything happened to them.

bookie