If I told you that the name of a two-year-old, black-and-white cat was Bullet, you might get an ugly idea how he got that name. And unfortunately, in this case, your hunch would be right: Bullet was going about his daily cat business in Frazee, Minnesota, when some detestable human took out a gun and shoot him a couple of times.

Thankfully, with the help of the Cats Cradle Shelter in Fargo, North Dakota, Bullet has recovered from his wounds and relocated to a better life. Here’s how it all went down.

According to Gail Ventzke, executive director of Cats Cradle Shelter, Bullet was found by a guy who used to clean trailer parks.

“Because of the number of mobile homes, there are lots of cats abandoned there,” she says. “This gentleman saw that the cat had a bullet wound and, because he was running low on money from funding some TNR efforts, he called us for help.”

When Bullet arrived at the Cats Cradle Shelter, he didn’t seem to be in too bad of a condition — mainly because his wounds appeared to be focused on his legs rather than any vital organs. But the evidence that he’d been shot was blatant: There were four holes puncturing his body, with two on his wrist and two on his shoulder.

Rescuers brought Bullet to Red Barn Veterinary Services in Sheldon, North Dakota, where he had surgery to remove a series of bone fragments.

“The bullet went in the back of his wrist,”Ventzke explains, “and then it went up his leg and shattered bones in his elbow before exiting out of his shoulder.”

That trajectory, Ventzke says, suggests that Bullet was abused: “He was shot in an upwards way, so that means he was likely in a defensive posture.”

Ventzke adds that the first night she took Bullet home, he became scared of her ceiling fans.

“When cats react to moving things, it’s usually because they’ve been hit before,” Ventzke says.

Despite the harm Bullet has received in his young life, Ventzke says that he’s now doing great in his recovery program. He’s in isolation at Cats Cradle, but only because a couple of suspicious skin spots suggest that he might be battling a case of ringworm. Other than his pesky fungal issues, Bullet’s said to be a “super friendly” cat who “loves people” — and he has already received a couple of offers from forever homes that presumably don’t include menacing ceiling fans.

Follow along with Bullet’s case at the Cats Cradle Shelter’s Facebook page.