Sometimes bad things happen and there’s nothing you can do but try to pick up the pieces. On Thursday night, my heart was broken. Someone performed an act so cold and callous; I would actually say they had no soul.
When my hamster passed away, I was devastated and heartbroken but I understood that he was old and that crossing the rainbow bridge was just another adventure for him. When my poor cat Blackie was put to sleep because he was too ill, frail and had spend two long years in the dark, blind, I had to learn a hard lesson about letting go. He would finally see again across the rainbow bridge.
But when I saw the results of a hit and run, I felt anger that someone can murder without regret and I felt a cold terror for the poor owners who would not know what happened when they don’t see their cat in the morning.
On Thursday, my mum and my big sister drove home after work just before 11pm. The car in front slowed down on the big road (40mph) outside our housing estate. Confused, my mum slowed down too. The car in front came to a stop and a cat ran across the road. Instead of continuing, the driver got out of her car after putting on the side of the road. Mum did the same once she saw why. In the middle of the road was a cat lying on her side. The woman driver picked up the dead cat and put the cat on the grassy bit between the pavement and road. Mum said the driver was crying and telling them how she normally could not touch dead animals but this one was still warm. Whoever had run this cat over did it recently. The driver also told them that there was another cat that looked exactly like this one. The other cat was hovering around the dead cat when the driver’s car scared that one off into the bushes.
Not quite sure what to do, my sister decided to call RSPCA, my mum drove home and the other driver drove off. When my mum got home, she told me what had happened and I said we couldn’t leave the dead cat out there, what if there was a microchip? My sister called me and told me RSPCA mentioned calling our vet or the dustbin men. Apparently the dustbin men carried microchip readers. I didn’t think calling the vet’s emergency mobile would be of any use, the cat was already dead from internal injuries and there would be nothing a vet can do to change that. I didn’t trust the dustbin men to treat the cat right. So I made my mum drive back, this time with me.
Two minutes later, I stood where they had left the cat. She was beautiful, small white with the tail and some patches having a black on brown tabby pattern. Her fur was semi long and she looked young, almost fragile in death. Her eyes were open in shock, as if she did not see the car coming. The other woman driver actually came back at that point and told us that she had been driving around trying to find the other cat as she was worried that one would come back for the dead cat and linger around on that road, risking another accident. She said she could not find the other cat.
I thought about the damage a hungry fox can do, the possibility of a microchip and maggots in the morning if the cat was left out there. So I grabbed a box and a bin bag. I carefully lifted the still warm body into the box and slipped that into the bin bag. The other woman had left by now. We drove home.
The next day, I took the cat to the vet and had them scan for a chip. Unfortunately they found none and they had no way to find the owners. The receptionist mentioned that she would call Cats Protection and also let me know if anyone claimed the cat.
Tomorrow, I will knock on doors in my housing estate, I am sure the cat came from a house in my estate as there are no other houses nearby. I am determined to find the owner as no one else would look for them and not knowing can be just as painful as the truth. What makes it all the more tragic is their other cat, the one still alive, witnessed all of this but would be unable to speak out to his owners.
I am sure that the one who performed the hit and run must have been driving too fast. If that person stayed under the limit, they should have been able to stop in time or the cat would have saw and not ran out. Cats are not suicidal. They should have stopped and done everything in their power to keep the cat alive or find the owners.
This is the second hit and run I’ve been involved in and it is upsetting that people can just drive off without a second glance. If you ever find a cat on the road, please do everything you can. Alive, find a vet. If dead don’t leave the cat there, he/she could be chipped. Gently place the cat in a bin bag and hand the cat over to a vet. Someone at home could be missing that cat.
I feel so sad about what has happened and cannot imagine the worry and fears that family must be having as their cat has not came home. I really hope I do find them tomorrow.
