A pet cat is learning to live with only three legs after she was shot with a small projectile.
Tal Kocen says that his cat Hazel got out of his home on Kipp Avenue in Elmwood Park on June 25. His wife found Hazen four days later and noticed she was in pain.
"How could you be cruel to an animal? To a creature that didn't do anything wrong. They can't talk back, they can't fight back," Kocen says.
An X-ray showed that Hazel had been shot in the hind leg and her femur was shattered. A vet was forced to amputate the leg.
It is believed that Hazel was shot with either a pellet gun or .22-caliber weapon.
Kocen say that he wants whoever shot his cat to be identified, because the situation could have been much worse.
"Who knows what else this person was shooting at," he says. "Say they missed and it goes though the fence. It hits my fence? It hits my kids? It hits me?"
Elmwood Park police are investigating. Anyone who might have any information about the incident is urged to give them a call.