Yesterday morning my sister emailed me to tell me that one of my mother’s cats, Peter, had been run over on the road. This cat is our Ahmose’s brother. He’s a delightful ginger and white tom with a tendency to be somewhat accident prone. At that time, he had been in the veterinary surgeons overnight and the prognosis was vague. I called my mother and she was naturally distraught. Apparently my father found the cat while out walking the dog. He was lying in the road having been left for dead by whoever ran him over. The accident had probably only just happened. They rushed him to the vets where he was examined and put on a drip for overnight observations. I assured my mother that this was good news – if the situation was hopeless, they would have recommended euthanasia immediately instead of carrying out further tests in the morning and talking about wiring up his jaw.
The following day, they spent most of the morning exploring his injuries and wiring up his jaw. At lunchtime he was “stable”. At about 4 in the afternoon, he was in “discomfort” and if things didn’t improve, they might have to opt for euthanasia to avoid further suffering. At this stage, my mother was suffering. She didn’t know what to make of the situation. I and my sister assured her that having come this far, Peter’s prognosis would be improving every hour that he survived. Having spent all that effort, euthanasia would be defeating the object.
Today, Peter was sitting up and eating. His jaw looked normal. He suffered a cracked pelvis which will require rest to heal. The vet is worried that he has not emptied his bladder but as it isn’t yet full, immediate worry is not justified – also cats can hold it in for extended periods and having suffered a pelvic injury is probably uncomfortable passing urine. Time will tell. However, when an animal starts to eat following illness or injury, it means they are fighting back and the will to live is strong – compounded by the vet using terms such as “when he goes home” rather than “if he goes home”.
Peter is still seriously ill and is not out of the woods yet, but the signs are looking better than they were 36 hours ago. The question on my mind is this:
What possesses someone who, having hit a domestic animal with their car, can leave it for dead in the road without stopping or trying to identify the animal’s owners?
People who run animals over, then drive on are the scum of the earth. My son once witnessed this happen one time……he chased the car down the street, yelling and cursing at them. Unfortunately, that cat was killed.
I can remember a similar incident when I was a child. A taxi-driver who lived just up the street from me ran over a puppy and didn’t even stop … just kept on going. It died on the scene, blood dripping from it’s little mouth onto the road. Nothing was done to the driver.
Another thing that gets up my nose is people who own dangerous dogs. We’ve had four cats die in the last five years after being attacked by three different dogs. One of them was killed outright, but two suffered for days in agony. One was paralysed – mentally and emotionally he was fine, but had no feeling in his lower back. All of them had to be euthanased as a result.
Only one of the owners of these dogs was taken to court. He was fined and had to pay the vet bills. Another paid the vet bills, but no other action was taken, whilst the third got off scot-free. What I’d like to know is, why is the life of my cats accorded less value than that of the dogs? Rationally, I know that it’s as much the owner’s fault as the dogs, but thinking about it makes me so angry that I’d like to see both the owners AND the dogs euthanased for the pain they caused my lovely boys.
I’m glad to be able to finish this rant on a positive note though, and say that I’m glad to hear though that Pete seems to be making a full recovery. More power to him … and I hope that the bastard who hit him has a horrible accident.
Me
”'{Longrider replies} In the UK cats are protected under the Protection of Animals Act 1911. While they are not covered for road accidents, they are covered for deliberate acts of cruelty – including setting dogs on them. Likely as not, in the UK, the dogs would have been destroyed – we also have the Dangerous Dogs Act.”’
”’When my mother went to see him yesterday, Peter was off his drip and trying to sit up when she went into the room. At the moment it is a bit difficult as he has a cracked pelvis. This is probably why he isn’t passing urine. Cats need to get into a comfortable squat – a cracked pelvis probably doesn’t help. Is that too much detail?”’
No, it doesn’t worry me, LOL … I’m not loathe to call a spade a spade. Keeping my fingers crossed for Peter.
Me 🙂
I had a puppy when I was a kid. one day he ran accross road and was killed by a running car. I was very ill for a period. Some people forget that maybe these painful feelings would come back on them one day.