A. What am I, a coroner?

I’m not. But this article by Rhiannon Horrell of the Central Leader makes me think that my kitten, Chester, could have been the victim of a crossbow attack last year.

According to the story, a cat named Kevin was taken to the vet in December with “puncture marks near his back legs…(and) a broken pelvis and dislocated tail.” Nobody knew how the cat got injured. The vet was stumped, but said that she had heard of crossbow attacks in the Mt. Eden area.

What struck me and Jacquie was how Kevin’s injuries seemed to parallel Chester’s:

There was blood around his rectum and under his tail. He had trouble walking when the vet put him on the floor…It was becoming clear that Chester had suffered major trauma. An x-ray showed that nothing was broken, but there (were)…massive swelling and gashes on his leg…

…Chester was apparently leaking urea from a puncture or tear somewhere along his urinary tract. Something or someone had given Chester this serious internal injury. He couldn’t pass urine from his penis due to the swelling. It was flowing into and building up in his leg instead.

Our vets were puzzled by Chester’s injuries and nobody landed on a satisfactory theory to explain them.  Unlike Kevin, Chester had no fractures,but I seem to recall the vet saying the tail had been yanked. Of course, we’ll never know what happened, but given Chester’s injuries, a crossbow in the hands of a burgeoning psychopath is emerging as a leading candidate.