A CAT lover spoke of her anger last night after her beloved feline had its head shaved and whiskers cut in a bizarre attack in Felixstowe.Sue Wright was stunned when 12-year-old Thomas returned home with a bald streak on the back of his head after being missing for nearly a day.

A CAT lover spoke of her anger last night after her beloved feline had its head shaved and whiskers cut in a bizarre attack in Felixstowe.

Sue Wright was stunned when 12-year-old Thomas returned home with a bald streak on the back of his head after being missing for nearly a day.

He went out on Friday night but did not return until the following afternoon, by which he had been given a new look.

Mrs Wright, who has four cats, said: “I can't imagine why anyone would do something like that. I was really upset.

“It's a horrible thing to do, particularly cutting off a cat's whiskers. They gage gaps with their whiskers and use them to work out if it's big enough for them to fit through. Now he hasn't got any whiskers he might think he can fit through somewhere and then get stuck.”

Mrs Wright said the attack has upset many of her neighbours in the Garfield Road area of the town, where Thomas is something of a celebrity.

“If you ask almost anyone who travels along this road they will say they know Thomas,” she said.

“He is very friendly and he sits at the end of the road. All my neighbours are horrified because they all love him and he loves the attention.

“For a couple of days after the attack he didn't want to go far away from the house - and that's not like him - but he seems better now.

“I had been keeping him in at night because I was worried about him but I can't keep him in all the time because he is such a sociable cat.”

It is believed clippers were used to shave Thomas' head. They were also used to crop fur on his tail.

A Suffolk police spokesman said it had been contacted by Mrs Wright about the incident.

“We had a report from a concerned pet owner saying her cat had been missing and had come back with its head shaved,” he said.

“We are aware and details have been logged by local officers.”

A spokeswoman for the RSPCA criticised the person or persons responsible for the incident.

She said: “We take any attack that causes suffering to an animal very seriously. This sort of thing can leave an animal in great shock.”