Life just sucks sometimes, you know? You'll be toodling along, maybe everything isn't great but it's not too bad, then something happens that just sets you back on your heels.
Something like that happened last night.
I was doing my usual rushing around between appointments, taking care of ferrets, and loading my friend Chris' car because she was taking the club store to a ferret show this weekend.
While we were loading the car, a stray cat came up and started rubbing up against all of us. It was a pretty cat, but obviously starving. By the way it acted, I was pretty sure it had been abandoned when someone moved out. It was craving attention and food. I don't need another cat, and I know you're not supposed to feed strays (or they become yours) but it was such a nice cat, that after we were done loading, I went inside to get some leftovers from last night to feed it.
In the meantime, Chris put the last stuff into her car, loaded up her 10-year-old niece, and drove off. I came outside with the food and the cat was no longer at the end of my walk, so I went out onto the sidewalk, calling the cat.
I saw some movement in the street next to the sidewalk, and at first I thought the cat was rolling in the dust, like they do sometimes to scratch their back. Then I realized that was not rolling, but it was having a seizure.
Then I saw the blood gushing out of the cat's mouth and in a moment of utter horror, I realized Chris had run over the cat. It had gone over to her car, wanting to be loved, and it must have walked under the car when they closed the door.
I watched until I was certain the cat was dead, not wanting it to suffer and just staggered into the house. It's horrible not to be able to save every fuzzy creature that comes by me, and I know I can't, but it's really awful when 30 seconds earlier that fuzzy creature was purring and rubbing up against you.
I know it's better off ... it won't starve to death or die slowly from some illness, it won't freeze to death over the winter, it won't have to suffer anymore wondering why its owners abandoned it ... but it was shocking and horrifying.
Life just sucks sometimes. You know?
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Comments: 38
I'll be thinking of you, and hoping for good things.
You poor thing.
I hope the painful memory diminishes over time.
M
You're probably right about him being better off now. Hopefully there is kitty heaven.
What they need is a good implantable tracking device. I would SO buy them for the ferrets. Well, if they weren't too terribly expensive, anyway. They do have locator devices for larger critters like dogs and cats (you attach to their collar) and you have a finder device that you can use to track them down within a certain range. Works pretty well, too. They're a little big for ferrets, though.