A couple of weeks ago, Tara Neely went to let her cat, PopPop, back inside for the night, but he was nowhere to be found.

“I would let him out on my day’s off to run around and play outside, and he didn’t come home that night, which is very unusual because he doesn’t miss his dinner,” Neely said. “I was looking for him all that night, he didn’t show up so [the next] morning I was calling him and getting ready for work, and I saw him crawling across the grass.”

PopPop was having a hard time getting home because he had been shot in his front left leg.

“I thought, ‘Oh God, something’s wrong.’” Neely said. “I got him in the house, and I didn’t know what was wrong with him.”

Neely took him to the Selma Animal Clinic, where an X-ray revealed a bullet in his shoulder.

“I was in shock. I was like how could anybody do anything to an innocent animal,” Neely said.

Despite an antibiotic regiment, the wound became infected.

“I ended up taking him back,” Neely said. “I thought he was going to be put down, and I was just disappointed. Dr. [Mark] Lawrence was like, ‘Don’t give up on him, there’s other options.’”

It was decided the cat’s leg would have to be amputated in order to save his life. Neely credited Dr. Lawrence and his staff for their reassurance during the entire process.

“I was just very impressed with the service that I had gotten from the clinic itself, not just him but the whole staff,” Neely said. “The surgery went great. He did an excellent job. I didn’t know what to expect.”

PopPop is now safely back at home, learning to cope with three legs. Neely said he will be a solely inside cat.

“The doctor said that cats don’t have an emotional attachment to their limbs, and I can tell he doesn’t seem affected by it,” Neely said. “I think I’m more affected by it than he is.”

Neely rescued the cat in 2012, which was found around a gas station on Highway 80.

“My brother called me and was like we can’t leave this cat here and people at the Chevron were saying they hope somebody will rescue him, so we got him then,” Neely said. “When I found him, he looked like he had been through a lot, and I nursed him back to health.”

Neely did not file a police report about the incident.

“I figured no one would come forward, and I thought it would be difficult to find out who did it,” Neely said.