The weapon's pellet lodged inside two-year-old Angel under her right lung and will remain in her body for the rest of her life.

A vet has ruled it too dangerous to remove.

Adrian Ward, of Alphapet, said he believed Angel had suffered twice.

She had been shot at close range and either hit or kicked afterwards in a sickening twist to the horrific incident.

He said: "She had bruising on her left-hand lung which was the opposite side to the one in which she was shot. It's guesswork by me but the pellet would not have caused that and I'm assuming she was either hit by something or kicked subsequent to her injury – which is an horrific thought.

"Angel was very distressed and in shock and a lot of pain when I saw her.

"I considered the distress of trying to retrieve the pellet outweighed the benefits of doing so.

"This sort of injury is incredibly unpleasant and causes a considerable amount of distress for the pet's owners as well."

He said the results of the injury would have been a lot worse had she been shot in the eye or without her ribcage to protect her.

Angel's owners, newly-weds Nicola and Andrew Kettlewell, are shocked by the savagery of the attack on one of their two cats.

They are distributing photographs of Angel in the area around their home with an appeal for information leading to a prosecution.

Mr Kettlewell said: "The police would like to see the person who did this. We think whoever did it is cruel, vile and has no respect for life. You wonder what they will do next? Is it a five-year-old boy who will be the next target?"

The shooting happened between 5pm and 6pm on August 4. Mr and Mrs Kettlewell were married just two days earlier and were at their home in Pinehurst Park preparing to go on their honeymoon.

Angel, a black-and-white domestic shorthaired cat, was playing indoors, as she usually does. She disappeared from sight and Mr Kettlewell soon became aware she was back indoors, howling in pain.

Blood was pouring out of her side and she was obviously in agony. Her condition worsened as the couple took her to the nearby Alphapet surgery in West Meads.

Mr Ward's initial diagnosis that Angel had been shot was proved correct by two x-rays.

Teacher Mr Kettlewell (36) said: "The pellet has scraped her lungs and embedded itself in the fatty tissue just below her diaphragm. It's safer to leave it inside her, so she will always have it.

"Angel is such a tiny and timid cat who weighs 3kg to 4kg. She hardly goes more than 300ft from our house. This means we have the horrible feeling we could possibly know who did this."

Mrs Kettlewell (29), a dental nurse, said Angel had now recovered from her ordeal.

Talks with the couple's neighbours have revealed a couple of similar incidents in the past few years in the area, raising the alarming prospect that Angel's shooting forms part of a pattern.

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