PEBBLES the cat had a lucky escape when an air rifle pellet narrowly missed her heart.

Horrified owner Steph Thomas discovered the six-year-old pet's gruesome injury at home in Christchurch on the afternoon of Tuesday, May 26.

Miss Thomas took Pebbles to the vet where she learned that a lead pellet, thought to have been fired from an upstairs window, had passed through the cat's shoulder and ended up lodged near her sternum.

She was in for surgery overnight and is now home with her sister Bamm-Bamm, recovering from her ordeal.

Miss Thomas, 30, said: "She had blood on her shoulder and I thought she had just got herself into a scrape at first, but mum came over and found a little round hole and said we should go to the vet straight away.

"The vet said the pellet had gone in at quite a sharp angle, as if shot from a first floor window, and it was so deep that it was probably an air rifle.

"She was a very lucky cat that it didn't hit anything vital."

Miss Thomas, who lives with her partner Richard Taylor, 33, in Albion Road, said Pebbles had been ok at around 2pm that day, so the attack must have occurred between then and 5pm when the injury was discovered.

They moved to the area from Iford late last year.

"Pebbles is quite happy now, she stayed in for a few days but is allowed out again now," said Miss Thomas.

"She was a little bit nervous at first.

"It is quite worrying as a pet owner. You don't like to think that anyone living nearby could do a thing like this.

"It is certainly not something I expected to happen in this area and the PCSO I spoke to said the same thing.

"I just hope it doesn't happen again, it is quite upsetting if you are a pet owner, but what if a child was hit by mistake."

Dorset Police are investigating the incident. Report information on 101 quoting incident number 26:309.