A Greensboro neighborhood is on alert after someone shot another pet with a pellet gun.
It's the third pet attacked in this manner, in the past year and a half in the Adams Farm neighborhood.
The latest victim is a 1-year-old cat named Nadia. Nadia was a gift from dad to his 13-year-old daughter. They found her bleeding in a tree on Sunday and knew something was wrong.
"She was kind of on her feet like this claws are grabbing the tree kind of hanging down. At the time we thought it was just snowy wet but it was really blood coming down," said Nicholas Delvaux, Nadia's owner.
Now instead of treats, Nadia gets pain medications every 6 hours to make it through the day.
"It's not straight morphine-like for humans but it is pretty close," said Delvaux as he administered the medication to the visibly muted kitten.
He said the kitten was meowing loudly from the pain and hanging on to the tree for dear life until it was rescued.
"We couldn't really get to her fast enough and she dug her claws in the branch and drag her way over to the roof."
Police say someone shot another cat in October and a dog last spring, in the same neighborhood.
Both of those animals survived but police are still looking for the shooter.
In the meantime, the Delvaux's need surgery to save Nadia's life.
X-rays show the pellet lodged close to her spine.
"Once we stop giving antibiotics and run out of medication it could cause chronic pain, lifelong pain and because of not having antibiotics we may have to put her down," concluded Delvaux.
The family hopes it would not come to that and have set up a GoFund Me page to help pay for the surgery.
People are already donating to it and neighbors are also pitching in to get answers. They're contributing towards a reward for information on the shooter.
Police say the cases appear to be isolated but they continue to investigate. If you know anything that could help find who's targeting the pets, you are asked to call Greensboro Police.
