DINWIDDIE COUNTY, Va. -- Squeak, a five-year-old domestic cat, was expected to make a full recovery after he was shot with an arrow. Squeak's owners returned to their Dinwiddie home Sunday and found their cat with an arrow sticking out of its body. The arrow went through the cat and missed every vital organ.
"When they say a cat has nine lives, he probably just used one of them," Alvin Langley, with Dinwiddie County Animal Control, said. "By the X-rays that I have seen, it was pretty close. The arrow almost hit his spine. If it had hit the spine, the cat would have probably died from its injuries."
Animal control investigators said they were not sure whether the cat was intentionally shot, or if it was merely an accident. Investigators are knocking on doors near the cat's Tranquility Lane home, hoping someone can provide answers.
"You could not mistake this cat for anything else. It is a cat. It don't look like a deer. It don't look like a bunny rabbit. It don't look like a squirrel," Langley said. "It's hard to believe someone would have mistaken this and shot it."
Langley said the arrow that hit Squeak was an arrow used in target practice, not a hunter's arrow.
Arrow strikes cat in Dinwiddie (PHOTO: Dinwiddie County Animal Shelter)
"You wonder how the cat survived. How did it not hit something major?" Langley said. "It's emotional. To see something hurting, it sets you back."
If investigators determine shot Squeak on purpose, the offender could be charged with felony animal cruelty. Anyone with information about the incident was asked to call Dinwiddie Animal Control at 804-469-3758.
