Rebecca Stewart said Blue was frightened, sore and struggling to fight off infection after the incident, which was like “something out of a horror film”.

She has reported the attack to Tamworth police and the RSPCA hotline, and hopes someone will come forward to help catch the cruel culprit.

“It must have been horrific, because the way they’d been cut he surely would have bled a lot,” Miss Stewart said.

“They're clean cut, but not just on the claws – up in the tips of his toes, really deeply … 

“The vet said to me he’s seen a lot of horrific things in his time, and this is one of them.”

Miss Stewart said three-year-old Blue was one of a litter of three her family had kept and desexed, along with the mother.

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The pets were normally let out of an evening and let back in during the night or early in the morning.

But Blue went missing on Saturday, March 3.

“Then just about when we’d given up hope, [my daughter] put a lost post on Facebook and the next morning he turned up at the front door,” Miss Stewart said.

Blue wasn’t overly hungry or thirsty but just seemed a bit tender-footed.

“At the time, I just thought he’d walked a long way,” she said.

“I didn’t get time to check him over, so I just let him sleep all day.

“That night, I could smell a weird smell.

“I started checking him out and realised one claw was missing; I thought he’d been in a fight.

“I started checking all of them and they were all gone … I was horrified, I just broke down.”

Vet Andrew Speer, from Greencross Vets South Tamworth, said he had never seen anything like it.

“They’re all [cut] down to the nail bed, a couple of the toes are actually infected and he’s quite sore on them, but it’s just speculation as to what happened,” Dr Speer said.

“It’s beyond me as to why someone would do it.”

Blue is not allowed outside for at least two months while he heals.

It’s hoped his claws will grow back, although Miss Stewart fears they’ll be malformed if they do.

She said she wondered if someone was getting revenge on him for other cats’ behaviour.

“There are a lot of tomcats in this area that go around peeing on everything, so I don’t know if he’s being blamed for that,” she said.

“I just don’t even know what to think.

“I still can’t believe it.

“He’s actually been sleeping with us, when he never does; he won’t leave us ...

“When he’s on the bed and we go up to give him a pat, he wakes up in a fright; he’s terrified.

“When I think about it, it’s something out of a horror film.”