VIDALIA — Sox is a survivor.

Aside from a hot pink cast covering her leg and shoulder, the feline looks unscathed.

It was less than two weeks ago when the cat, dragging a lame leg, limped back to its home at the Sandbar Restaurant in Vidalia.

“My heart just broke,” Lillie DeShields said, recounting the incident.

DeShields has an office near the restaurant and, along with the restaurant’s staff, had unofficially adopted the cat as the restaurant’s mascot.

“She was Sandbar Sox,” she said. “We all looked after her.”

Everyone at the restaurant loved the cat, and that’s why DeShields was so surprised when the cat showed up at the restaurant with a bullet wound.

“Who would shoot this animal?” she said leaning over the lame animal. “I don’t understand.”

Now Sox is on the mend at DeShields’ house.

And when DeShields talks about the kind of person that would shoot a cat, she gets emotional. Her eyes redden and the tears start to flow.

Sox just looks likes she’d rather be in the yard hunting sparrows.

Veterinarian Wendy Day at Gregg Veterinary Clinic was one of the first to treat Sox and discovered she had been shot.

“It’s not surprising,” Day said. “It’s not uncommon to see an animal with a broken bone, do an X-ray and discover lead from a bullet.”

Day said if Sox’s leg does not heal correctly, it may have to be amputated.

Right now DeShields said she just wants to find the person that shot Sox.

She has dotted Vidalia with “Who Shot Sox?” fliers in hopes of getting a tip that results in the arrest of the shooter.

DeShields said while she realizes Sox was likely in someone’s yard that had a dislike for strays, the cat should not have been shot.

“You can call animal control,” she said. “You don’t have to try to kill it.”

DeShields said she believes the cat was shot near the Vidalia Lower Elementary School and is concerned a stray bullet could have injured a person, not just Sox.

Once the cat has healed, she’ll be moving to a new home away from the Sandbar.

“She looks like a little drunken sailor,” DeShields said as the cat limped across the bed. “I just don’t know who could do this. Animals don’t have a voice unless we make sure they have one.”

Anyone with information regarding the incident should call DeShields at 601-807-3816.

A misdemeanor animal cruelty conviction in Louisiana can carry a six-month prison term and a $1,000 fine.

A felony case carries a fine of no less than $5,000 and no less than one year in jail. Animal cruelty is a felony if the animal is tortured, maimed or mutilated.