WILTON – Bob may have used one of her nine lives, but this feline is a survivor.

Named Bob for her stunted bobtail, the 2-year-old, tuxedo-patterned black-and-white feline suffered a gunshot wound in mid-September.

Owners Ralph and Sheila Giffin of 83 Weld St. want people to know that she is doing well, very well.

After spending the day outside but near her Weld Street home, the cat returned one afternoon in September with a large open and bloody wound to her right shoulder, Sheila Giffin said.

The Giffins took her to a veterinarian the next day and were told that she had been shot.

Only fragments were removed from the cat, but police believe she was shot by a .22-caliber gun; otherwise, the cat would probably have been killed, Giffin said at the time.

She had a small entry hole in her chest and the larger wound where the bullet exited. It destroyed a third of her right shoulder blade and the surrounding muscle, Giffin said.

After returning from the veterinarian, she wore a large cone-shaped collar, but managed to slip by Giffin’s husband and got outside still wearing the collar. She returned a few hours later.

Now the skittish cat lives an indoor life.

Her shoulder has healed, leaving a short stripe of light fur where her stitches once were.

She walks, runs and jumps just as well as any other cat, Giffin said.

The only obvious evidence of injury is uneven shoulder blades.

At the time of the shooting, Bob was the mother of five 5-week-old kittens. The cat belonged to a neighbor until she gave birth in Giffin’s home in late July.

The neighbor then let Giffin keep Bob, she said. One kitten has the abbreviated bobtail like its mother.

Giffin has found homes for three of the kittens and couldn’t bear to part with the other two, she said.

Bob has since been spayed and confined to the inside. Giffin has also made sure that Bob and her kittens have had their shots and worm treatments, she said.

As to who shot the cat and why remains unknown, but the ordeal was a miracle for Bob, she said.

Giffin believes it happened in her neighborhood because the cat didn’t stray far from her litter at that point.

A week after Bob was shot, another neighbor’s kitten disappeared, she said.