Thugs hold down, shoot and try to hang poor Jessie the cat

X-ray images show the airgun pellets lodged in Jessie's skull after the assault and vets also found ligature marks on her neck.

The family's other cat, Lilo, also one, had been shot in the leg just two days earlier.

Owners John and Dawn Morvan, of Wakefield, cannot believe Jessie survived. Mr Morvan, 46, a bus driver, said: "This was sheer evil.

"It doesn't matter whether you like animals or not, it doesn't give anyone the right to do something as disgusting as this.

"After she was treated for the pellet wounds she came back home but went downhill again so we took her back to the vets and he found ligature marks on her neck and a black blood clot on her tongue.

"These marks had taken a couple of days to appear and they proved that they had tried to hang her as well – it's beyond belief."

The family have had pay a 1,600 vet bill and face further bills as Jessie's treatment continues.

Lilo was shot in the leg during the first attack at about 4pm on October 23 and then Jessie stumbled home just after midnight two days later with air rifle wounds in her neck, ear and face, leaving her deaf in one ear and possibly blind in one eye.

Vet Daniel Lyons, of Chantry Vets, who carried out a two-hour operation to remove the pellets from Jessie, said it was "without a doubt" the most shocking animal cruelty case he'd seen.

Mr Lyons said: "If you shot a cat once it would run away, so it must have been incapacitated or, which is even more blood-curdling, two people were involved and one held her down."

PC Justin Hayward, of the neighbourhood investigation unit, said: "This was a nasty attack on two family pets and we will fully investigate bothincidents."