MONSON – A young bobtail cat was recovering here Wednesday after animal health workers removed nine of 16 gun pellets that were embedded in its head.

A law enforcement official, who is investigating the cruelty case, thinks the approximately 2-year-old cat was shot repeatedly at close range while in captivity.

Douglas Villone, Monson animal control officer, said this week that he picked up the stray cat earlier this month after a resident on the Steward Road complained about the animal. After the white, gray and black cat was restrained in a live trap, Villone said, he noticed that its face was covered with small red welts.

“It had a rough-looking face. It looked like it had been in a fight with another animal,” Villone recalled Wednesday. Because of its injuries, Villone took the cat to the Sherman Veterinary Service in Dover-Foxcroft.

Officials there at first thought the cat was sick because its face was swollen and its nose was running. But a hand check followed by an X-ray determined that the cat had been shot numerous times with a pellet gun.

“I found it very disturbing that somebody would shoot a cat that many times in the face,” Villone said. He said a cat wouldn’t stand still for such treatment, that it would have to have been secured in some manner.

Officials at the veterinarian service, who have named the cat Buckshot, pulled nine of the “mushroom-shaped” pellets from the animal’s head and Villone is holding them as evidence. Debbie Minder, animal health assistant, said trying to get the other pellets out would likely do more damage to the cat than leaving them to work themselves out.

Some of the pellets were behind one another, leading officials to believe the shots were fired at the cat at close range. The pellets were lodged between and above its eyes.

Villone said that the perpetrator, depending upon what pellet gun was used, either had to load and reload and pull the trigger for each shot or had to put in one pellet at a time, pump the gun and shoot it. In any case, it appeared to be a deliberate act, he said.

The animal control officer said he reported the incident to the Piscataquis County Sheriff’s Department. With the investigation turned over to the local sheriff’s department, the perpetrator could be summoned for a criminal charge rather than a civil one. “Animal cruelty is not something they treat lightly,” he said.

The maximum sentence for a criminal charge of cruelty to animals is up to a year in jail and a $2,000 fine, according to Piscataquis County District Attorney R. Christopher Almy. A civil violation would bring a fine of up to $500, he said Wednesday.

Immediately after learning that the cat had been shot, Villone said, he started asking residents if any vandalism by pellet guns had occurred in the area or if anyone had been seen with a pellet gun. No one could provide any information, he said.

Anyone who recognizes the cat or who has information about its injuries should contact Villone at 997-3913 or the Sheriff’s Department at 1-800-432-7372.

Buckshot has been given all of its shots and is now available, along with several other cats at the clinic, for adoption. Buckshot appeared to be a docile animal on Wednesday.

“He’s one lucky cat,” Minder said.