Teena Noble was distraught when her home-loving cat Shadow disappeared.
After six days with Shadow still missing, Ms Noble from Kensington, Whangarei, had given up hope of seeing her pet again.
When she heard distressed meowing from outside her Keyte St house on Tuesday, Ms Noble instantly knew her cat's cry. But she was shocked to find Shadow with an awful eye injury.
She believes Shadow had "her eye blown out by a gun".
"We just don't know how she found her way home in that condition, after all that time," Ms Noble said.
Vet Andrew Miller, who removed what was left of the eye, said the injury looked suspiciously like a gunshot wound. There were no scratches or other injuries that might have been left by an attack from another animal, or signs of an injury caused by a barb.
His Kauri Veterinary Hospital treated two or three gunshot wounds in pets each year, he said.
The Northern Advocate was told by another cat owner in the Fairway Drive area their cat had also been injured in the past week, with what looked like shotgun pellets in its back.
Before Ms Noble found a vet who could carry out the emergency surgery on a payment plan, she had been advised by others to have Shadow put down.
"I couldn't do that, she's my baby," she said.
Mr Miller said cats managed well with only one eye, although it could take some time for them to adapt.
Shadow went home from the vet's surgery yesterday and Ms Noble said she would have to build up the courage to let her pet outside again.
"Fortunately, she's an inside cat. She hardly ever goes away from the house," she said.
-Anybody with information on how the cat got its injury can contact Whangarei police on 430 4500.