A GRANDMOTHER is distraught after her cat, given to her after her husband died, was shot with an air rifle by an “evil” yob.

Lucy Nicklin gave her pet cat to nan Sonia Nicklin earlier this year to help the 75-year-old combat her loneliness following the death of her partner, Brian.

Belle, the black cat, ran into her owner’s home in Kempsey last weekend and was “terrified to leave the house” said Lucy, 22.

A couple of days later, with the one-year-old cat still “worried to go outside”, Sonia found a lump on her stomach and took her to the vet.

“She thought it was a tic at first – it turned out she had been shot by someone,” said Lucy, who also lives in the village with her child and fiancé.

The family believe Belle was shot by a teenager who is under the legal age to use such a firearm without supervision, with the vet having found a .22 air rifle pellet still lodged in the cat’s stomach.

Lucy said they confronted the youth, who allegedly told them his friend had shot the cat.

She claimed he said he “wished his friend had a better shot because it wouldn’t have been in the stomach it would have been in the head”.

Lucy said: “I just think this would be good to raise awareness to all the cat owners out there that there are some evil people that shoot animals, causing them unnecessary pain and suffering.”

Sonia has lived in her current home for over 50 years and become lonely after her husband died in September last year.

“I hadn’t had Belle very long when I gave her to my nan because she was just all on her own,” said Lucy. “Now it’s just her and the cat together.”

Belle is currently on antibiotics and cannot go outside until she’s off medication.

Lucy said other cats in the area have been injured previously in a similar way with a neighbour’s cat also said to be refusing to leave the house.

She believes it may have witnessed the shooting of Belle and be traumatised.

The incident has been reported to police.