5 Feb 2026
Vets managed to save the animal’s leg and she has managed to make a full recovery.
Vet Times
Job Title
Toots the cat, who has. made a full recovery.
A cat believed to have suffered a “horrendous” gunshot wound has made a full recovery after treatment by Dorset vets.
Two-year-old Toots was rushed to Lynwood Vets’ Verwood surgery after returning home wounded having been missing for three days.
She was transferred to the practice’s central hospital in Wimborne due to the complexity of her injury, where x-rays revealed her left hindlimb had been shattered below the knee and pieces of gunshot were embedded in her leg.
Vet Luisa Williams, who treated Toots’ wound and managed to save her leg, said: “How Toots suffered her injury remains a mystery, but it did have the characteristics of a gunshot wound. My first thought was a pellet gun, but due to the amount of damage it’s likely to have been something stronger.
“We also think the large wound on her leg may have had another cause, rather than being an entry wound for a pellet or shot, and it’s possible that she caught her leg on something when she was trying to escape after being injured.”
Toots’ owners had reported to Dorset police hearing gunshots around the time their cat went missing.
Data released by the RSPCA last summer showed a 30% increase in reported airgun attacks on cats in England and Wales from 2023 to 2024. Overall, 193 incidents of weapon attacks on cats were reported to the charity between 2022 and 2024.
