Linda Wolf got scared.

Then she got angry.

Last week, the resident of Sunrise Drive Northeast discovered that someone in the neighborhood shot Calypso, her small and very sweet cat.

The shot shattered the 4-year-old cat’s front right leg, and the surgery to repair the damage and avoid an amputation cost $2,300.

Wolf has since papered the power poles in her Sunrise Drive neighborhood with posters asking for information on who could have shot the tiny black-and-white cat. An initial reward of $500 has since been increased to $800.

Wolf lives in a neighborhood of homes on large lots, and it’s not uncommon to see pets roaming free in their yards. She said her cat came home about 9 p.m. Monday of last week and limped in.

“We thought, well, she got in a tussle with some kind of animal, maybe a raccoon,” she recalled.

Before the wound could be examined by the family, Calypso disappeared. They later found her hiding under a bed, and a trip to a veterinarian clinic in Winslow brought disturbing news.

The initial report from Calypso’s X-rays indicated she had been shot twice by a pellet gun. (A later examination showed the cat had been shot once, but the pellet broke apart after entering the feline’s leg.)

One veterinarian said the wound appeared to have caused so much nerve damage that an amputation would have to be performed, but after a second look by another vet at the Ridgetop Animal Hospital in Silverdale, the couple decided to try to have Calypso’s leg repaired.

That meant a hefty bill, however, with money that was already budgeted for something else.

“I said to my husband, ‘I don’t care if we can’t buy the piano we wanted to, I don’t care. We’re putting the money toward her leg,” she recalled.

Meanwhile, Wolf began her search for the shooter.

“By this time, I had gone and clicked off about 20 posters and put them everywhere around the neighborhood,” she said.

Wolf also used the community’s phone tree to call everyone in the neighborhood, then went door-to-door and bluntly asked some of those she met if they owned pellet guns.

Some were helpful. Others, not, like the man who was worried the posters detailing the shooting would hurt his ability to get a renter for a home in the neighborhood.

“At that point I felt that everybody in my neighborhood was a suspect, even the people I know well,” Wolf said.

She suspects that it was probably an adolescent boy, a teenager who lives in the area, or another young man.

Last week, the disturbing tale became even more twisted. Wolf discovered some of the posters she put up had been smeared with dog waste.

“The whole thing has just been so shocking from the get-go,” she said, adding that it started to change her idyllic view of Bainbridge Island.

“My little sanctuary has a hole in it now where I feel the woes of the world and all the other shootings going on,” she said.

Still, there have been a few positive developments.

Wolf noted that Bainbridge police have come out and taken a report on the incident. Some neighbors have offered tips on possible suspects. Kids who live in the area have dropped by to visit Calypso, and she recalled one neighbor who brought treats for the cat and how the shooting had brought tears to his eyes.

Calypso’s surgery was also a success, and she is expected to make a full recovery.

Now, Wolf hopes the reward — to be paid out if it leads to a confession in the case — will help find the person who shot the cat.

If it turns out to be a young person, Wolf said, she hopes the matter can be resolved through talking about the shooting, how it hurt the family and Calypso, and not prosecution.

“I’m not about wanting to see someone hung and tarred and feathered. I wish that person would see the error of his way and start the healing process in this person,” she said.

Anyone with information on the shooting can call Wolf at 206-780-0429.