For several days, we have been concerned over an injury to Junior's side. I thought at first it was a warble (Cutereba), but there was no singular lump in her side. It was a closed-over scabby wound at first, with a single circular external lesion. She would try to clean it off, but wasn't getting very far with it. With Ronald's help, I managed to clean enough gunk off of it to open it up, and then it drained.
When the skin moved, a great deal of tissue damage could be seen about half an inch behind the opening, as if the skin slid when she was injured. We set up a vet's appointment, but the cat took off and we had to wait a day to get her in. She is on the mend now that she is on antibiotics and had it cleaned out.
This is what the injury looks like today:
Closer up, it is easy to see that it is almost a perfect circle:

Since there are no other injuries (such as if she had been in a cat fight, etc.), I believe someone shot Junior with a pellet gun, and the pellet is still in the wound. It shouldn't hurt her to have it in there now that the infection has been cleaned out.
I wonder which one of my neighbors shot my cat.
