A cat whose “back end had almost been cut off” by a train managed to survive after dragging himself back to his owners.
Rescue cat Hector, aged two, had to have his leg and tail amputated after being hit by a train near Fairlie station in North Ayrshire.
Hector dragged himself 229 metres uphill to get back home, hauling himself over the garden fence before being found by owner Sharon Joyce and her partner Iain.
Vet Paul Smith said he’d “never seen a cat make it home with such awful injuries”, as he described how the only two options for Hector were to either put him to sleep or amputate.
Ms Joyce said: “Iain found him in the living room with his leg and tail badly damaged, and wrapped him up in a towel straight away.
“It was so bad we thought he’d been hit by a car, but the vets said the wounds indicated they’d been caused by train wheels.
“We think he’d been lying in shock and Iain shouting for him had brought him round. The bleeding had mostly stopped, but he was muddy from dragging himself back.
“The railway tracks are about 250 yards away and it’s a steep slope up to our house, so it must have taken some effort and we’ve no idea how he managed.”
Speaking about Hector’s recovery, she added: “He’s not as good at jumping as he’s only got one leg to spring off and he’s a bit quieter. But we’ve made things easier for him around the house, cat-proofed a play area outside and he still enjoys a scrap with Porter.
“The vets were fantastic and we can’t thank Oaks enough. We know Hector has used up more than one of his nine lives and if his pelvis had been damaged then he wouldn’t have survived.
“He’s incredibly lucky to have come through this.”
The operation took around two hours.
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Mr Smith said: “I’ve never seen a cat make it home with such awful injuries. His back end had almost been cut off by the train, and he’s so lucky to survive both that and the operation.
“The only two options were either to amputate or sadly put Hector to sleep.
“We didn’t know how much blood loss there had been, we couldn’t tell the extent of the crush injuries and infection was a major risk.
“We wouldn’t normally have operated on both the tail and leg at the same time, but we had to act immediately to save Hector.”
