My cat died last night after being hit by a car.
I can’t stop thinking about it and what I should have done differently and so I hope it’s ok to use this space to try and decompress a bit.
It is distressing I’m afraid.
I came home around 10.30pm from a works do and he was very pleased to see me to get fed and hammered down two sachets.
Then by around 11.15pm when I was in bed and on the phone to my partner (working away) I could hear animal noises outside but thought it was next door dog.
Then when I came off the phone around 11.30pm I heard him howling
in the house and went downstairs and he was howling, retching / vomiting and dragging his back legs.
He was moving around a lot between rooms and going into small spaces and then tried to get out the cat flap again but clearly in a lot of pain.
I faffed around trying to get the vet emergency number - had to make a few calls and be redirected - out to the bottom of the garden to the shed to get the cat carrier and then realised I couldn’t put him in it as he was stretched right out in pain (lying more still by now) and I didn’t want to cramp him up in the carrier.
I had some left over metacam from a minor surgery he had a while back and thought about trying to get that into him and couldn’t find the dosing syringe or think how I could give it to him.
So I lay him in a big box (more faffing to get recycling box from outside and find blankets to lie him on) and took him to the car but then he was trying to drag himself out the box and was distressed by being in it.
I lay him on the footwell but he was still clawing about trying to get up and I couldn’t possibly drive like that.
It was late and all my neighbour lights were off and nobody passing by on the road to help me and I thought I would have to get him in the cat carrier so I could drive safely (emergency vet was half an hour’s drive away) but I couldn’t bloody put the thing together as required different bits to be zipped up and I couldn’t do it and whilst I was faffing about with that he just went still at last and died in the footwell.
I was still sat next to him while he was in the footwell and was stroking him in between trying to do the zips but not enough 😞
I feel terrible the last hour of his life was so awful !
And I was on my own and if I’d just had someone with me I could have fully comforted him and got him to the vet sooner.
But at least the kids were all with their dad so didn’t witness.
He was a boss of a cat.
Head of the household.
Excellent hunter and liked to take offence at every other cat on the road, and also at random cupboards/corners of the room in the house (have many videos of him miaowing at a random corner).
Bullied the postman (attacked his legs so that parcels are now left at the post office).
Have postman on ring doorbell running away and telling a passer by “that cat’s a nutter”.
Affectionate to his own humans on his own terms / when hungry (always hungry).
He went out fighting I reckon as that was his personality.
But also loved a nice long cosy sleep on the grass out the front of the house on a sunny day.
Sleep well in a sunny patch forever, my king of cats.