CONCERNED residents in a rural Pembrokeshire community are holding an animal safety meeting tonight (Monday) after a pet cat in the village had her leg bone shattered by an air-gun pellet.

Five-year-old Trilby went through a "distressing" ordeal and underwent a gruelling three-hour operation to save her leg.

She is now recovering at her home in Martletwy in the care of her owner, Laura Heyden.

Said Laura: "Everyone in our road is very concerned about the safety of their animals and we will be holding a residents' meeting tonight.

"It is just shocking that this has happened in our small community."

The injured puss was a rescue cat, and her owner said: "To further blight the life of a previously badly-treated animal makes this even worse."

RSPCA Cymru is now appealing for information about the incident on Monday September 10, which saw Trilby making her way home with a broken leg.

She was taken immediately to a vet when it was discovered she had been shot with an air-gun,.

Said Laura: "We had a brilliant surgeon who carried out the very complicated operation on Trilby.

"The vet intended to do a pin and plate operation, but the pins and plates they would have ordered in were all too big as Trilby is a small, delicate cat.

"The vet had to improvise with pins he had in stock which were small enough, and wires in two figures-of-eight to hold the bones together.

"During the operation, he found a destroyed blood vessel, and because this had supplied blood to a bone, with no blood flow to it, that bone had to be removed.

"We have since been quite concerned about her because she has been very low, but since her splint has been taken off she has been a bit brighter."

Trilby's treatment and operation have cost £2,000.

Added Laura: "We are lucky in that we have been able to afford this, but it frightens us to think that someone else might not have been able to.

"It has been, and continues to be, a traumatic, stressful and deeply upsetting experience for us.

"It has changed our cat's life and has had a deeply-disturbing effect on our lives that I would not wish on anyone."

RSPCA inspector Keith Hogben said: "Trilby and her owners have been through such a distressing ordeal and it is just horrifying to think that someone may have done this to deliberately inflict pain on this poor defenceless cat.

"We don't know exactly where or when this happened and if this was a deliberate attack, so we are appealing for information to try and find out what happened to Trilby."

Anyone with information is urged to call the RSPCA's inspectorate appeal line on 0300 123 8018, which is in confidence.