It’s been a touch-and-go 48 hours for 6-year-old Oscar after he returned to his West Courtenay home Saturday afternoon with what appeared to be serious injuries.
“I kind of cleaned it, thought maybe he’s going to go lie down, he lied down for a bit, the next morning I woke up and he couldn’t walk,” said Oscar’s owner Jennifer Rumney Serafini.
She took him to Van Isle Veterinary Hospital in Courtenay thinking Oscar may have encountered a bear or raccoon but soon received a completely unexpected diagnosis.
“The vet showed me x-rays that he had been shot with a pellet gun,” Rumney Serafini told CHEK News.
The x-rays clearly show a pellet lodged in Oscar’s side. The pellet had entered one side and nearly exited the other.
“I was disgusted, livid, sad that someone would actually do that to another living creature. I just had no words,” said Rumney Serafini.
But Oscar’s already had a brush with death.
When he was a kitten, he was found in a dumpster. That’s when Rumney Serafini adopted him from Kitty Cat P.A.L.S.
Now, there’s this encounter with someone and a BB gun.
“It’s not a very common injury that you see so it’s quite upsetting when you find out there was an injury that was inflicted on an animal on purpose,” said Van Isle Veterinary Technician Brittany Kendrick.
Rumney Serafini lives on Crystal Drive near Arden Road and thinks Oscar was in a ravine by a creek behind her home, not in someone’s garden as people might suggest.
“I more or less think that someone did this for kicks or I don’t know, something sick,” she said.
Rumney Serafini says she has contacted RCMP.
Oscar remains at the hospital and will likely undergo surgery Tuesday.
“I would hate for anyone else to go through this,” added Rumney Serafini. “Another family, or some young child that loves their cat so much and someone would do this just for fun?”
“I am just totally disgusted.”
Dean Stoltz
