Lost my cat today

[Bayrat]

I happened to get home early today from an out of town meeting with an affiliated utility, and spotted my cat laying along side the road in front of the neighbor's house. He was still warm and bleeding, someone would have had to drive almost into a tree to hit him. School was out within the half hour and I assume one of the speeding boom boxes that fly by here made him a target. Two years ago I lost my dog to a flea control product, and now this. He was very smart, hard to find in a cat and I will miss him .

[Dob]

Sorry to hear about your loss, we are still recovering from losing our oldest St Bernard, Caesar.

Regarding the "accident", our driveway is off of a little road that's all of 250 yards long, ends into a driveway, with mine and one other off it. You'd be amazed at how fast some folks, even those that live at the end will go up through there! Anyhow, about 2-3 months ago, my wife is out in the yard and one of the younger neighbors from below is coming up the road a bit too fast, she turns to "warn" them as our precious little "Sunshine" (our favorite cat) darts out. BLAM! The kid keeps going, truthfully I do think he was oblivious, what with the radio blaring and all. Sunshine is a mess, my wife leaps out, grabs him up - all of his parts are there, just not all where they are supposed to be. Blood covered, and bawling like she should, she heads to my great neighbor, Brian's. He comforts as the cat finally dies in her arms.

I don't mean to hijack your thread, but rather to commiserate, as a loss in such a way is usually a little more gut wrenching than finding one "peacefully asleep".
Thoughts are with you,

PS Once apprised of the situation, the kid immediately came up and did an admirable job of apologizing, and I don't think it was under threat. It even helped slow them down, for a couple of weeks anyway...

[PhilNH5]

Bayrat,
Sorry to hear about your loss. It is always tough to go through.

I'm gonna' have to stop reading the "Pet" threads. Getting to be emotionally draining.

I don't know you or Dob nor neither of your loved pets and hearing of the loss saddens me.

Phil

[Gatorboy]

I am so sorry for your loss. I know that feeling and it is horrible.

About 13 years ago, when my son was just a toddler, I had been working on installing a garage door opener. Well, I was in the middle of installation when called to dinner, and the garage door was up -- I came in and washed up but did not realize at the time, that while I was in the bathroom, my son opened the door from the house to the garage and and our Lab walked out there.

During dinner I heard this screech of some tires and a yelp. I immediately got up and looked for Dillion (our lab) and could not find him. I went outside and looked down the street and saw a black blob in the middle of a neighbors yard. I jumped in my car and drove to it. There was Dillion -- dead in the lawn. I imagine the impact did not kill him instantly, for he was 50 feet from the street. He must have tried crawling away and the internal injury took him within seconds.

Picking up that warm, dead body and loading him into my car was one sick feeling. I realize that pets and people die, but when they are taken instantly, it hurts even more.

[Stoneheartfarm]

Bayrat,

We just lost our cat in August to an ear infection. She was about 17 years old and had gotten to the point where it was hard for her to climb up on things any more. We and the vet tried to save her, but the antibiotics wouldn't cut whatever she had. I think it was TMB (too many birthdays) as much as infection.

SHF

[TimSullivan]

Sorry to hear of your loss. There are no words that will take the sadness away.

Tim

[pbenven]

I lost a little buddy about a month ago. This tiger striped cat showed up at my garage door while I was working on something. I gave him some water and bit to eat so he decided to hang around for a few days, not leaving the garage. One day he looks at me while I'm fueling the tractor, looks outside, and walks off. He did this a few times this summer, showing up unexpectedly and leaving the same way. He was a fine looking cat and neat to have around while I was puttering, and he killed his share of mice during his stay.

I hadn't seen him in about a month. I went into the garage to get something when I spotted a tail behind the garbage can. The cat looked like an empty bag of fur. He'd obviously been lying there awhile - there was no way he could ahve moved under his own power in the state he was in. I turned my attention to the disposal of the body. You can imagine my horror when he lifted his head and looked at me.

I cleared a space off on my workbench and lay him down on it. The back portion of his body seemed to be very stiff. I got a glass of sugar water and started feeding him with a straw using my thumb to create a vacuum. He died a few hours later. I'm guessing he got into some rat poisoning.

By contrast, I lost one of my dogs to the highway in front of my house during the summer of 2000. Although he died more quickly than that poor cat, it was much more violent. The site of my dog like that left deep scars.

I'm really sorry about your loss.

[Boondox]

Bayrat -- We have both cats and dogs, and mourn the passing of each. Not many understand how special cats can be, those special cats with character. We lost Microsoft Cat to a fisher a few years back, then Miles to a vet's incompetence this year. Both are buried in the family graveyard near the pond. Both are still missed dearly.

My thoughts are with you. Pete

[hazmat]

Bayrat,

Sorry to hear about your cat. Not to lesson your loss, but here is a sad story about one of our cats with a little humor.

Rewind to high school. Parents let us have after prom party at their house. I'm sure we kept them up all night. My poor dad has to go to work the next day. He is a doctor & had to work the weekend.

He gets home & opens garage door. It spooks the cat who runs right into the tire. He comes in the house and declares "I killed the cat, but it's not dead yet!" Somewhat of a humerous statement coming from a trained medical proffessional.

They took him to the vet, & he passed as they were getting ready to put him down.

[Bayrat]

<font color="red">Thank you all for your kind words </font color> , I just feel like crap. The wife and I went for a walk last night to try and get our heads straight over this and I made a check of the roadside grass. As I said, this was an extremely smart cat, he would not go near the car or mower if it was running, what I found did not surprise me. There are heavy tire tracks in the long grass about two feet or so from the edge of the pavement, right where I found him. You can tell from the pattern of the imprint that the vehicle was moving at a pretty good pace cutting in and then out again rapidly, as I suspected. If I had not stopped to fuel up I might have been there when it happened [img]/forums/images/icons/mad.gif[/img] and in jail today.

Almost three years ago we lost our standard Poodle to a flea product and it took me another year and a half to warm up to another animal. She was hands down the best dog I have ever owned; watchdog, friend, playmate, entertainer and a great hunter. Strangers used to hear her barking at them through the door and ask us if she was a Shepard, when I said poodle they would laugh and say "yea right".

I don't know if I should go rescue another cat from the pound or have a "cooling off" period to reflect on what has happened. It really is odd how we can develop such a bond with a creature that never says a word. The oddest thing happened right after I burried him, hundreds of birds swooped down into my back yard. They were on the pool cover, in trees, on my feeder but mostly just walking around in the grass, then they left as quickly as they came. I have NEVER seen anything like it.

Again, thanks for the thoughts.