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It’s that time of year again when the days are slowly getting longer and, with spring onA CAT has been scarred for life after he was nearly killed in a horrific air rifle attack.

Two-year-old Salem was shot near his home in Wigan - leaving him with a bad limp and in agony.
His owners took him to the Anrich Veterinary Hospital where an X-ray revealed the pellet, which had narrowly missed his brain. It brushed past his eye before lodging in his right shoulder. \

Experts at the clinic have decided not too remove the pellet because surgery would be too dangerous.

Black longhaired Salem, who has been left with a bald patch on his right leg, is slowly recovering from his ordeal.

Now vets at the specialist hospital, which opened in 1967, have appealed to parents not to allow their children to play with air guns.

Dr Shams Mir, who treated the cat, said: ‘It is very worrying to contemplate what the gun, used to shoot at Salem, is going to target next.

‘He only moved to Wigan with his owners comparatively recently but clearly received the type of welcome he would never have wanted. The pellet is likely to stay in his shoulder for the rest of his life, and will hopefully cause no problems.’

Dr Mir added that the gun seems to have been aimed at Salem's forehead - and that the cat was only alive because it moved its head just in time.

The doctor added: ‘Out of sheer luck he seems to have moved to his left in that millisecond allowing the pellet to brush past his eyeball and eyelid into the shoulder joint. Salem was lucky.
‘He escaped the bullet going into his head, eye, lungs or even heart.

‘Salem's suffering is not only a sad story of sheer callousness towards animals. It is also symptomatic of a lack of respect for life.’

Salem's shocked owners acted as soon as they saw their pet in severe pain. At Anrich, Dr Mir found the cat was left lame on his right foreleg.