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A cat is recovering after being impaled on a bush in a garden in Glastonbury.

Spooky, who is six years old, was dashed to the veterinary surgeon after being discovered atop the roof of a house near its home with a section of the plant still inside her. By a miracle, the branch had missed all of the cat’s organs by millimetres, only spearing the cat’s skin and muscle to emerge 2 cm to the right of her spine.

Ann Morgan, who owns Spooky, suspects that the cat had fallen from a window on the first floor of her property and speared herself on the bush before running away. As soon as she located her pet, she took her to the local vet, but not before experiencing difficulty in getting her in her cat box.

Spooky underwent an hour long operation to remove the plant, performed by Vicky Hopkins at the Orchard Veterinary Group, based in Glastonbury, Somerset.

She commented:

"It was horrific when we opened the box and saw the extent of what had happened, but luckily, she was calm – I think her owners were more traumatised, to be honest.

"We X-rayed the cat and saw that somehow, the stick had managed to miss everything and we were able to remove it from her. I think the fact that the stick was blunt saved her – it couldn't pierce through the abdomen.

"Spooky was a brave cat and she made it through the surgery without any problems and recovered well – she came into us on the Saturday morning and was home with her owners by Monday night.”

The bill for the operation came to £700, but luckily Ms Morgan had taken out a cat health insurance policy, which was able to cover most of the fees. She was relieved to have had the foresight to take out pet cat insurance , but stated that even if she hadn’t she would have footed the bill to save her beloved pet.

Ms Morgan expressed her gratitude to the team at the Orchard Veterinary Group for saving Spooky’s life, and hailed them as being “amazing”. She said:

“Spooky is one of the family”.