KATE NEWTON
The vet had never seen anything like it when he pulled a lead pellet out of Katikat's ear.
The cat's Tamatea owner, Sharyn Corneal, thought her ginger puss had an abscess when she took him to the vet, but a look of horror came over her face, and the vet's,
when the pellet was extracted this week.
"It was the size of my fingernail. The vet said he was lucky to be alive," Ms Corneal said.
"It was stuck inside the back layer of skin. The vet said 'my god, that's the strangest thing I have ever seen'."
Ms Corneal didn't know how the pellet got in Katikat's ear but suspects he was shot with a slug gun or slingshot.
"I rang the police to ask if I should be advising them and they said 'definitely'," Ms Corneal said.
Katikat is recovering at home but doesn't appear to be in too much pain.
He is a well-travelled cat, given to Ms Corneal in the Chatham Islands but brought up mainly by her two pet dogs who cleaned and mothered him.
However, having a lead pellet pulled out of his ear isn't the only trouble he has had in his six-year life. Three years ago he was mauled while living in Auckland.
