Who shot Bumble the cat? It's a whodunnit straight out of Miss Marple, featuring a beloved family pet and a wickedly doctored gun pellet. Now, accusations are flying in an idyllic Cotswolds town By Fred Kelly Published: 01:27 BST, 9 September 2024 | Updated: 01:33 BST, 9 September 2024 e-mail View comments Charlotte and Peter Fiell were on holiday in Majorca when they got the call. Charlotte dropped the phone and the blood drained from Peter’s face.
Bumble , the couple’s beloved cat, had been shot. Charlotte got on the first flight home to England. Once back in Chipping Campden, the picturesque Cotswolds town, she went straight to Abbey Green Vets in nearby Broadway, where Bumble – an adorable grey with piercing green eyes – was in intensive care, fighting for his life.
A metallic pellet had pierced his lung. With each breath, he mewed in agony. Bumble was lucky to be alive.
An X-ray showed the pellet, fired from an air rifle, had missed his heart by millimetres. Charlotte, 58, and Peter Fiell, 66, were on holiday when they found out their cat Bumble had been shot A metallic pellet had pierced Bumble's s lung - the wound (circled) after it had healed After an emergency op, and six long days in recovery, Charlotte and Peter were finally able to take Bumble home. When the Mail visited the family – three weeks after the shooting – Bumble was, if a little underweight, jumping off tables with characteristic energy.
But don’t be fooled. For Bumble and his loving owners, the past three weeks have been hell. And their idyllic town is now a crime scene.
‘There’s a veneer of pleasantness here,’ said Peter. ‘But you don’t have to scratch too far below the surface to find a bit of an ugly underbelly.’ In the early hours of July 18, someone loaded a gun, aimed it and fired – striking Bumble in the chest.
‘It was a shot to kill, no doubt,’ Peter told the Mail. The question is: who pulled the trigger and almost killed poor Bumble? Peter, 66, and Charlotte, 58, live in a stunning former tavern in the heart of Chipping Campden. It’s one of the most beautiful towns in the Cotswolds – that glorious patch of England near Oxford that counts the likes of Jeremy Clarkson, Jilly Cooper and the Beckhams among its well-heeled residents .
Devoted animal lovers, Peter and Charlotte have long taken in stray cats in need of a caring home. But Bumble’s story is more extraordinary than most. ‘Our eldest daughter was in Majorca eight years ago,’ recalled Charlotte with a smile, ‘and she found a small kitten who’d been abandoned by his mother.
’ ‘Probably because he was so rambunctious!’ Peter chimes in. ‘But when I saw a picture of him, I just melted into a puddle. We had to adopt him.
’ It cost a hefty £2,000 to get Bumble chipped, vaccinated and flown, via British Airways, to his new home in England. But for the Fiells, it was worth every penny. Such is their love for Bumble, the couple knew they couldn’t go back to life as normal, following the shooting, without some form of closure.
‘My biggest fear is that the shooter will strike again,’ said Peter. ‘And next time, it could be fatal. Don’t forget, violence against cats is a gateway offence to some more hideous crime where you’re shooting people – or even children.
’ The Fiells’ amateur sleuthing began with posts on Facebook, an article in the town bulletin and flyers posted through local letterboxes detailing a £500 reward for relevant information. Within days, they were swamped with well-wishers expressing their sorrow. Read More TOM UTLEY: My dog Minnie is smart enough to stop me going to the pub for hours ‘One person, anonymously, sent us a card, saying: “To Bumble.
Get well soon, from all the grey cats in the world”,’ Charlotte recalled tearfully. The Fiells were touched but not surprised. After all, Bumble was something of a local celebrity, renowned for popping in to visit neighbours in their gardens.
He even had a ‘girlfriend’ – Bridget, a rabbit, in whose hutch he would often sleep, cuddled up to his floppy-eared friend. But despite all this, there was still no suspect. What the Fiells did have, however, was a sinister piece of evidence.
When the couple received the offending pellet from Abbey Green Vets, they found it was no typical piece of shrapnel. In fact, the metal appeared to have been tampered with. It was not the usual ‘mushroom’ shape associated with a .
177 or .22 air rifle (the most likely weapon); instead it had been carved into an unusual ‘V’ shape, creating a double-headed pellet. Peter and Charlotte’s first thought was that the pellet must have disfigured upon entry, perhaps ricocheting off the bone.
But the vet’s report revealed the projectile had lodged in Bumble’s body without grazing his skeleton. This left only two possible conclusions. Either the pellet had ricocheted before striking Bumble.
Or the ammunition had been doctored. In Peter’s own words, perhaps the pellet had been carved into this shape to cause ‘maximum internal damage’. All of a sudden, the Fiells were out of their depth.
In a bid to make sense of the worsening nightmare, they decided to hire private investigators. David Leyden, a former police officer of 30 years with the Somerset and Avon force, who now works for Cotswold Private Investigations, wasn’t necessarily the obvious choice for the job. Though blessed with a muscular build and wise head, David also has a chronic allergy to cats.
Together with his colleague, former Royal Green Jacket Mike Jennings, David got to work. ‘This area is a hotbed of intrigue,’ Mike told the Mail, ‘with individuals who have a seemingly endless capacity to get themselves caught up in mischief!’ Just as the pair joined the case, a breakthrough appeared in the form of an elderly neighbour who revealed that a man living near her – and to the Fiells – was notorious for shooting pigeons in his garden with an air rifle. She had had to pick up the dead birds from her flowerbeds.
The Fiells were immediately sure they had found, in Peter’s words, ‘the vile miscreant’ responsible for the shooting. Bumble regularly visits the Fiells’ neighbour, who always has a tasty treat for him. And the private investigators established that, to do so, he likely passed through the suspect’s garden – or at least, along the top of his fence.
The couple duly informed the two Police Community Support Officers assigned to their case, who in turn went round to speak to the suspect. The man – who is known to the Mail but whose anonymity we have chosen to preserve – admitted that he did own an air rifle, which he used to shoot ‘vermin’ in his garden. However, he denied using it recently, even claiming he didn’t have any pellets.
Astonishingly, the PCSOs – who have no powers of arrest – decided there was no indication the suspect was responsible and announced there was no more they could do. Undeterred by official inaction, the Mail turned to Barney Meredith, the respected postmaster in Chipping Campden. If anything happens in this sleepy Cotswolds town, Barney knows about it.
No crumb of gossip fails to pass through his post office. The pellet, fired from an air rifle, had missed Bumble's heart by millimetres Peter and Charlotte live in a stunning former tavern in the heart of Chipping Campden, one of the most beautiful towns in the Cotswolds A well-wishers card that was put through the Fiell's letterbox after the shooting And yet, like seemingly everyone else, he’s been dumbfounded by the tragedy. ‘It’s really sad,’ said Barney.
‘Things like this just don’t happen here.’ Jackie Raby, in her 60s, lives a stone’s throw from the Fiells and remembers being appalled when she received a leaflet through her door informing her of the shooting. ‘It’s absolutely awful.
I know the cat and he’s utterly delightful,’ she told the Mail. ‘When I got the leaflet, I responded immediately with my condolences.’ One other lady, however, was less supportive of the Fiells’ search: ‘It feels like we’re all on trial,’ she complains.
‘And I’m fed up of feeling accused ...
But it’s dangerous to talk around here,’ she added, before refusing to give the Mail her name. Having spent a number of days in Chipping Camden, I couldn’t shake the feeling that the seemingly innocent residents knew more about what happened to Bumble than they were letting on. ‘Bumble is like a family member,’ Peter told me.
‘If you come for one of my family...
that’s the stupidest thing you could ever do.’ Tragically, the shooting of Bumble is no isolated incident. According to the RSPCA, 44 cats were shot with air guns, slingshots or crossbows over the first six months of 2024.
‘These weapon attacks are horrific, but what we see is likely only the tip of the iceberg,’ a spokesperson for the RSPCA told the Mail. ‘We’re really pleased that Bumble is on the mend – but it is heartbreaking that he was shot in the first place.’ Thankfully, Bumble looks set to pull through, although the vet has warned that, as with any lung trauma, there could still be further complications down the line.
And while his physical scars are healing, he is still understandably traumatised. ‘I’ve noticed he has been having nightmares,’ said Charlotte. ‘He’ll wake up suddenly with a fright.
You could say he’s got PTSD.’ Peter agreed: ‘I’ve noticed a change in his character. He’s not as loving as he was before.
Something’s missing.’ The day I left Chipping Campden, the town hall was awash with chutneys and preserves for the Country Market. For now, at least, it’s business as usual in this charming corner of England.
For Bumble, however, life has changed. If cats really do have nine lives, this feline is one short. Bumble Share or comment on this article: Who shot Bumble the cat? It's a whodunnit straight out of Miss Marple, featuring a beloved family pet and a wickedly doctored gun pellet.
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