Moo Moo the cat recovering well after being shot through head with crossbow bolt

A cat in New Zealand that survived being shot in the head with a crossbow is "incredibly lucky" and should make a full recovery. A Wainuiomata family made a mercy dash to Massey Veterinary Teaching Hospital in Palmerston North after their cat was shot with crossbow bolt. Janet Molyneux, director of the hospital, said Moo Moo was lucky to survive, and when the call had come in the team had assumed they would be looking at brain damage. "The arrow hadn't actually pierced anything or damaged anything or affected the eye," she said. "We really assumed the worst."



"He's just been remarkably normal and happy and purring ... he's going to go on to be a completely normal happy cat." Vet surgeon Dr Jonathan Bray said the four-year-old cat was incredibly lucky the bolt entered its head where it did. "The bolt went in just above the eye but was a glancing blow across the cranium so didn't actually impact on brain tissue at all," he said. Moo Moo's owner Donna Ferrari said their long-haired moggy was fine on Monday morning when he was fed, but in the afternoon she spotted him sitting in the back yard of their Tuam Gr home with the bolt protruding from both sides of his head. "At first I thought it was a kids' toy, but when he turned I saw it went all the way through," she said.



"He ran away as soon as I took a step near him, and jarred the bolt against the step and took off up into the bush." Ms Ferrari searched the foliage, but did not find him until Tuesday afternoon, when she spotted him lying motionless deep under a thick bush. A neighbour helped retrieve the cat, which was then taken to a Wainuiomata vet. "[The cat] was pretty calm, he purred, but every time he knocked the bolt in his head he flinched his ears back," she said. "They [the veterinary staff] were flabbergasted. The vet said he'd never seen anything like it." After consultation the family rushed Moo Moo to Massey University Veterinary Teaching Hospital in Palmerston North for emergency surgery. The operation went well, and he is expected to be home within a few days.



    Bray said that because the bolt missed brain tissue the process was a simple one. "It was really just a matter of opening up the track so we could clean up the contamination so it would heal up OK," he said. "There was a little bit of injury to his nose and eye socket, but he's an extraordinarily lucky cat. The velocity of the bolt hitting him would have been quite frightening, so he's very brave. He's very well this morning - bright and happy, the wound is doing fine and he's got nothing that is going to cause him any long-term harm." Wainuiomata Police have asked for the crossbow bolt, to carry out their own investigation. People with information are asked to contact Wellington SPCA.

With video.