THUGS shot a kitten at point-blank range.

Penny, a ten-month-old black and white moggy, has been left with serious injuries.

Owner Karen Bigden believes the thugs, armed with an air rifle, lured the young cat away before shooting her square in the chest.

Mrs Bigden, 38, said: “The pellet passed through her body from the shoulder blade right through to her colon. It has gone through her spleen and lungs.

“Penny is only a kitten.

“I think, because of the way the pellet travelled through the body, whoever did this beckoned her towards them.

“It’s just unbelievable someone could have done this.”

Mum-of-two Mrs Bigden, of Aldermans Hill, Hockley, said Penny started to vomit violently after the shooting.

She raced Penny to a vet, who immediately operated to remove the pellet lodged in her colon, but they couldn’t get to it.

Penny is on a drip staying at the vets. She will have to receive more surgery if the pellet doesn’t dislodge itself.

Mrs Bigden said her children Timmy, seven, and Tony, four, are heartbroken and desperate for Penny to come home. She added: “My children play in my back garden. It doesn’t bear thinking about what could have happened if one of them had been shot. It’s bad enough it’s our cat.

“The vet’s bill is already £3,000. It’s just as well we’re insured, because otherwise we would have had to have her put down.”

Mrs Bigden believes the cat may have been shot last Tuesday.

Police are investigating the incident.

Anyone with information can call police at Southend on 0300 3334444.