A mother has condemned the people who shot her family's cat.

The attackers left the puss with two pellets close to its spine after shooting it with what was thought to be an air rifle.

Lyn Hewes, of Salary Close, Colchester, noticed her six-year-old tabby cat Wooster was injured yesterday morning and rushed her to the vet.

Mrs Hewes, 38, said: "It really makes me angry that people do this, it really is horrible."

"She came in and hid somewhere. It wasn't until yesterday morning I realised she was in some pain."

She said the cat had been X-rayed, but vets were unable to remove the two pellets from the cat because they were too close to the animal's spine.

The cat is now likely to have a bump on its spine where the pellets are lodged, she said.

Mrs Hewes faces a vet's bill of £76 for treatment and a course of tablets and anti-inflammatory drugs.

She was worried her children - Emily, seven, Kathryn, five and Harry, three - would be very upset by the attack.

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.