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HANNIBAL, MO. -- Mike Moore is keeping a closer eye on one of his four shop cats after almost losing him to an arrow.

"My son was in the lower building and he came out and he flagged me down before I left and said, 'you're not going to believe this, but our cat, Junior, has been shot with an arrow,'" Moore said.

An arrow struck Junior through the stomach. Luckily, the arrow didn't hit a lung.

"At this point, he's hanging in there. He's doing pretty good but it's still touch and go," Moore said.

The animal hospital that treated Junior's wounds was able to determine that he was shot from close range.

"What we believe happened, is that someone came in at night and just thought it would be kind of fun to shoot a cat," Moore said. "We're pretty upset about it, we wish we knew who did that."

The answer may never come.

"Trying to find them is really hard," Robert Stout, a Hannibal Animal Control officer, said. "Someone needs to basically come to us and say they saw it, which is unlikely."

If that someone is found, they could get hit with a hefty charge.

"On a case like this, if we did have a subject, we could possibly charge them with a Class D Felony through the state," Stout said.

"I hope they do find him," Moore said.

Until then, Junior is healing and recovering at Moore's home, with eight more lives to go.

If you have any information on this case please contact Hannibal Animal Control.