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Strangers from across the world have dug deep to donate hundreds of pounds to help a cat found “peppered” with injuries from a pellet gun.

Sniffles has required costly operations, X-rays and antibiotics since she was spotted injured in a Cardiff street by passer-by Helen Robinson.

Weeks of tests and treatment revealed the cat had been left with injuries from a pellet gun.

(Image: Twitter/@tricksterbey)

Breathing problems

Vets also discovered a pellet had been forced up Sniffles’ nose which was causing her breathing problems and a streaming nose.

But the treatment she needed would run into the hundreds of pounds.

In the weeks after finding Sniffles animal lover Helen was handed a redundancy notice and knew she would struggle to meet the bills herself.

She went online and launched a Go Fund Me page to ask for help from anyone who could spare a few pounds.

The response was “overwhelming” and people from as far and wide as Canada, the US, and those closer to home in Cardiff all donated.

They have helped raise the £600 needed to meet Sniffles’ medical bills.

'Heartwarming and incredible'

Charity worker Helen, 36, from Splott, said she never expected the response she has had through both donations and messages asking about Sniffles’ welfare.

Even when Helen told Sniffles’ supporters that she had enough money, donations continued to come in.

“It’s so heartwarming and incredible,” she said.

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Helen first saw tabby and white cat Sniffles in Newport Road in November where she spotted a very nervous, thin cat with a face covered in discharge.

(Image: Twitter/@tricksterbey)

Already the owner of two cats, she decided to take the feline home but had no idea of what was to come.

Helen took the cat to the vet where Sniffles was given an antibiotic jab which helped with the discharge from her nose but Helen then discovered hard lumps on Sniffles’ belly.

Further tests revealed they were pellets from an air rifle which were found all over the one-year-old’s body.

'I just want to keep her'

She made another trip back to the surgery where she began treatment under the watchful eye of vet Sarah O’Shaughnessy from Marlborough Road Surgery.

It was costly X-rays which showed a pellet at the top of her left nasal passage which was blocking the nose. It is strongly suspected that pellet had been forced up her nose.

Sarah and her team immediately removed the pellet but a small piece has had to remain in Sniffles’ nose.

That could leave her with a permanent wheeze but she is expected to make a full recovery.

Meanwhile Helen is undecided about what the future holds.“My intention is to find her a home but every time I look at her face and remember what she has been through I just want to keep her,” said Helen, whose job is now secure.

“The idea of what another person had put this loving cat through was incomprehensible,” she said.

“Sniffles and I would like to thank everybody who donated, and Sarah the vet and the nurses, you’ve turned this little cat’s life around,” said Helen.