Heartless thugs blasted a cat in the NOSE with an air rifle -- leaving the poor animal with a pellet permanently embedded in its skull Long-haired tabby Max has been left with a projectile deeply lodged between his eye socket and optic nerve following the disgusting act. His horrified owner, Andrew Murchison, from Blackridge in West Lothian, first thought the two-year-old cat had suffered a seizure. But an x-ray later revealed the poor animal had been shot in the nasal cavity at close range on September 7. The pellet is permanently embedded in Max's skull as a vet would need to remove his eye in order to extract the ammunition.