So tired of the dead cats on the side of the road....

It just breaks my hearts to see it. today is the day my family gathers together for christmas eve. And i was sitting outside enjoying time with family, and i looked across the street and there was a cat on the side of the road. the people in front grabbed him/her and put her/him in a bag as if she was garbage.

Its funny because i had spent the whole night obsessing about the door being closed, and checking on my kitty, and locking her up in my room when people forgot about the door (she is indoor only). Here i am obsessing about my kitty, and there was this poor cat that no one cared about, dead on the side of the road.

sadly, this is a weekly occurrence in my neighborhood. there are a lot of cats in my neighborhood and many of them are killed. my brothers dog once attacked a cat, and i stopped him. but it was too late, it was a baby, not even a month old. its guts ripped out of him...

its just so devastating that no one cares about these little animals. i talk to people about the awful things that happen to animals in the hope that the more people know, the more likely they are to save these precious animals. but no one seems to think its a big deal, no one seems to care, and it just makes me lose hope in humanity.

sorry about the weird post, its 2 AM and i couldnt sleep thinking about that cat....

Are you sure it wasn't the owners who picked up the cat? Lots of people put their pets in plastic bags before burying them so they are less likely to be dug up by a dog or coyote.
Idk, just hoping that's the case and it makes you feel better. *hugs*

Minka said:

Are you sure it wasn't the owners who picked up the cat? Lots of people put their pets in plastic bags before burying them so they are less likely to be dug up by a dog or coyote.
Idk, just hoping that's the case and it makes you feel better. *hugs*

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thanks for trying to make me feel better. I dont think it was the owners though, they seemed grossed out to be touching her/him, and everyone was just standing by and starring, only one guy picked her up and put her in a bag. she was on the side of the road, and flattened, as if someone ran her over.

Maybe they were going to give the cat a decent burial

Being grossed out doesn't mean they weren't the owners either though. When I was young, I had to be the one to remove dead pets because my mom has a fear of dead things. It's not that she didn't love any of them, it was a phobia. She just couldn't brush it.
:dk:

Minka said:

Being grossed out doesn't mean they weren't the owners either though. When I was young, I had to be the one to remove dead pets because my mom has a fear of dead things. It's not that she didn't love any of them, it was a phobia. She just couldn't brush it.

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oh i see. my mom has always been the one to deal with the pets that have passed on. i probably cant just guess how ill act in a situation like that. i know i wasnt disgusted at least the one time i held a badly injured kitten. i once had to get a stray kitten away from my brothers dog, i went to carry her (she couldnt have been older than a month old, maybe less) and she had her guts ripped out, i could see from her tummy. it was just horrible. that moment changed me, because before that i didnt really like animals much.

not that i was ever cruel to them obviously, but i was indifferent to them, and if anything i got annoyed when i was the neighbors cats on my car. but that poor kitten touched me. a few months later i adopted my cat Kitty, which is my first pet that ive adopted on my own. And not just a family pet.

terestrife said:

oh i see. my mom has always been the one to deal with the pets that have passed on. i probably cant just guess how ill act in a situation like that. i know i wasnt disgusted at least the one time i held a badly injured kitten. i once had to get a stray kitten away from my brothers dog, i went to carry her (she couldnt have been older than a month old, maybe less) and she had her guts ripped out, i could see from her tummy. it was just horrible. that moment changed me, because before that i didnt really like animals much.

not that i was ever cruel to them obviously, but i was indifferent to them, and if anything i got annoyed when i was the neighbors cats on my car. but that poor kitten touched me. a few months later i adopted my cat Kitty, which is my first pet that ive adopted on my own. And not just a family pet.

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Well, see I think it could have gone either way, and luckily for you it went towards touched/more respect for animals.
People just deal with trauma in different ways I think. :nod:

It is so sad to see any animal not be respected, in life or in death. I was raised that the Good Creator Himself, cares for His creatures and to disrespect them shows our human arrogance. I grew up & live in an area where cats aren't as popular as dogs - my heart beats especially strongly for them, as well as for children and women, who are also considered "lesser" . Bless you for caring about that kitten!

terestrife said:

And there was this poor cat that no one cared about

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Why would you assume no one cared about this cat? Not everyone keeps cats indoors or in enclosures, it certainly doesn't mean they don't love their cats. 

As someone above said, perhaps they were picking the cat up to properly bury it. 

An awful lot of assumptions being made over viewing something from a distance.

missymotus said:

Why would you assume no one cared about this cat? Not everyone keeps cats indoors or in enclosures, it certainly doesn't mean they don't love their cats. 

As someone above said, perhaps they were picking the cat up to properly bury it. 

An awful lot of assumptions being made over viewing something from a distance.

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the cat did not have a collar. if it was an indoor/outdoor cat wouldnt the cat have a collar at least?

the thing is, i live in a neighborhood where you constantly see cats dead on the side of a road, i cant see how its showing love to a cat to let it go out in a bad neighborhood. i live near a mental institute, and there are a lot of drunks roaming around at night. some have even thrown beer bottles on our yard at our dogs. my neighborhood was much safer when i was a child but things have changed, and we cannot afford to move.

i understand having an indoor/outdoor cat in safe neighborhoods, but this one is definitely not safe.

but i do hope that the people were just trying to bury it. it is comforting to think that.

terestrife said:

the cat did not have a collar. if it was an indoor/outdoor cat wouldnt the cat have a collar at least?

the thing is, i live in a neighborhood where you constantly see cats dead on the side of a road, i cant see how its showing love to a cat to let it go out in a bad neighborhood. i live near a mental institute, and there are a lot of drunks roaming around at night. some have even thrown beer bottles on our yard at our dogs. my neighborhood was much safer when i was a child but things have changed, and we cannot afford to move.


i understand having an indoor/outdoor cat in safe neighborhoods, but this one is definitely not safe.

but i do hope that the people were just trying to bury it. it is comforting to think that.

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Back home our cats are indoor/outdoor, and over the years a few of them had never had collars or stopped getting one because they would lose them a week after they were put on.

And while you may see all these reasons not to let a cat out... other people don't. Busy streets, loose dogs, coyotes.. most people don't think twice.

Minka said:

Back home our cats are indoor/outdoor, and over the years a few of them had never had collars or stopped getting one because they would lose them a week after they were put on.
And while you may see all these reasons not to let a cat out... other people don't. Busy streets, loose dogs, coyotes.. most people don't think twice.

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oh, i see. if i ever did have an indoor/outdoor cat i would have a collar on him/her in case someone picks the pet up thinking its homeless. lol

a neighbor two blocks away once took took in a dog that my niece had that was indoor but found a way to jump our fence. we saw him once as we were driving by her house and she was taking him in after a walk.

terestrife said:

oh, i see. if i ever did have an indoor/outdoor cat i would have a collar on him/her in case someone picks the pet up thinking its homeless. lol

a neighbor two blocks away once took took in a dog that my niece had that was indoor but found a way to jump our fence. we saw him once as we were driving by her house and she was taking him in after a walk.

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Well, at least he was safe and she found him again!!

I want you to be comforted knowing that someone else thinks like you. My heart breaks every time we go to another town and there ALWAYS is a dead cat along the highway somewhere. These poor babies will never get buried. For some reason some people think cats are meant to be killed or disposed of, I had a three month old kitten playing in our yard several years ago, a car swerved up over the curb to run over him. This was intentional, not an accident. I've seen several cats hit, one of them my beloved 10 year old, ( who never should have been near the street) and the cars never stop.They have to know they hit something, I could sure hear it! Just know there are many of us out here that do care about these poor cats.I too lay in bed at night and wonder if the poor feral cats in our neighbor hood are warm enough, or have enough to eat. I feed several of them even though our town has a law against it. I also have 4 graves with cats that came to us for love before they died, people had dumped them, one with mouth cancer, one an old feral, and I tried my hardest to show them there is a little comfort and love in this world. People don't understand that dumping a cat usually means it's death, by starvation, or other animals, or cars. I don't know if they just don't care or if they truly don't understand.I'm just thankful that the cat in your road was picked up, so many aren't.
 

It is great that people have good hearts for animals. It is a tough situation out there. Trap and neuter, and non-kill shelters are the only way for strays to have some decency of life and hopefully live in a more healthy environment, and of course getting the kitties adopted or fostered is the goal of shelters.  The odds of older kitties going to a home is very low though as most people prefer to adopt kittens to 2 year old max. And shelters are tough places because of overcrowding situation since many people do dump unwanted kitties at the door step of shelters, and difficulty in keeping place very clean despite best efforts of daily volunteers like us being involved. Still, the shelter is better than the kitties starving outside and getting exposed to so much danger.
 

I've been lucky enough to only see one dead cat by a road and one by a railway track but what worries me the most is the thought of the owners never knowing what became of a beloved pet. I just hate thinking that the cat is never again going to see/be seen by its owners. The places where I saw dead cats didn't seem like places where cats would be dumped luckily. I wish all cats could at least be found by their owners when they die, best of all would be if they weren't dead until they died of old age. I hope things improve around your neighbourhood for cats and owners alike.