LEWISTON – A pair of BBs has done to Sasha the cat what rat poison failed to do last December.

Aimed above Sasha’s eyes, the BBs blinded the cat, all but ensuring that his days of wandering into neighbors’ yards are over.

“He’s feeling his way now, but he still tries to get out,” owner Wanda Klemanski said. “He’s a mouser, and he likes to roam the neighborhood. But I don’t think I’m going to let that happen.”

Klemanski lost another cat in December after it ate rat poison. When Sasha began acting sick days later, she rushed him to the vet to find he’d been poisoned as well.

A neighbor admitted to placing cat food laced with rat poison in his yard, claiming that he only wanted to chase the cats away to keep them from digging.

Two blood transfusions and several months of medication enabled Sasha to recover. Klemanski was awarded damages in a civil suit to help pay her veterinary bill. A criminal animal cruelty charge against the neighbor is still outstanding.

Klemanski said she suspects foul play in the BB shooting, and the veterinarian who treated Sasha agreed.

“It’s not like he just walked into a BB gun,” said Dr. Jeff Mayerson. “Someone meant to harm this cat. I suspect it was intentional.”

Lewiston Animal Control Officer Wendell Strout said police were still investigating the shooting, but had no suspects.

Klemanski said she let Sasha out on a Saturday, two weeks ago, expecting him to return home for lunch. She and her husband began to worry when he hadn’t returned and later discovered that the cat turned up wounded in a neighbor’s yard.

“He had blood all over his face,” Klemanski said. The cat had been shot three times, once just above each eye and again in the side.

Mayerson said the shots above the eyes blinded Sasha permanently, but the cat is otherwise fit and healthy.

“He’s not going outside anymore,” the veterinarian said. “He just couldn’t survive it. I don’t think he can afford to run through too many more lives.”