I haven't posted on the Cat Site for ages. My cats are all healthy, now young adults, with no problems, thank goodness, but I do call in from time to time to read the forum messages.
I felt the need to post though, after an experience I had this morning. I act with a local amateur theatre group, our final performance of our latest play was last night, and we went this morning to our studio to put the scenery back that had been used at the theatre.
I was there for a couple of hours, helping to carry stuff from the van into the studio, when I suddenly saw a large note scribbled on a piece of paper and propped by someone who had called in in the very early morning.
"Tabby cat found dead on the path to the studio this morning. Have put in bin."
I went cold. The studio is an old converted chapel in a residential area and I knew that cat would have a home and an owner worrying frantically about it. I hated to think that they wouldn't know and I couldn't bear to think of someone's loved baby being in the bin and ending up emptied into the bin lorry and carried off to the tip.
I decided I had no option but to start knocking on doors and asking if anyone had a tabby. As luck would have as I walked down the drive I met a lady getting into her car. When asked if she knew anyone with a tabby cat, she immediately said yes, her next door neighbour, but she often looked after him and fed him for her and he often mixed in with her own two cats. She sounded relieved "It'll be Buster, has he got trapped inside your place?" I had to explain, no, it was worse than that. Obviously she was upset, she said her neighbour would be devastated and she wanted to get him out of the bin so her neighbour could bury him properly. We emptied the whole bin, by this time full of rubbish and sawdust that we all had been unknowingly throwing in on top of poor Buster. There he was at the bottom. He had a bit of blood on his nose and around his neck/jaw area, and he was absolutely board stiff. It had been bitterly cold last night, about minus 6. We reckoned he had probably been hit by a car, crawled off and either died from his injuries (though he didn't appear terribly injured) or hypothermia. Unless he was attacked by a fox. He was a lovely big tabby, with a beautiful thick coat and it was awful to think just the day before he was a young, healthy cat. The lady said she was feeding him that night as his owner was away and she had been out loads of times trying to shout him and knew something was wrong as he hadn't come as he always did, the minute he was called.
We got him out and both had a little cry over him. She was going to clean the sawdust off him and take him for her neighbour. I'm now haunted by the fact that had we put our scenery away the night before, as we often do, straight after the play has finished, we might have been around to see and help him before he died so horribly. But we'd had to wait until the morning this time for the hired van to be available.
Sorry this has been long. I didn't even know Buster, only saw him dead. But when you are a cat owner yourself you can just imagine what they have been like and what a tragedy it is. I'm glad it got sorted though and he was taken to be buried and not left in the bin. I don't blame the man who put him there - no doubt he thought it better than leaving him on the path - and non animal people just don't think like pet owners do. There's been a sadness hanging over me today and I wanted to post on here to try and get it out of my system.
RIP Angel Buster. I wish I could have helped you earlier.
I felt the need to post though, after an experience I had this morning. I act with a local amateur theatre group, our final performance of our latest play was last night, and we went this morning to our studio to put the scenery back that had been used at the theatre.
I was there for a couple of hours, helping to carry stuff from the van into the studio, when I suddenly saw a large note scribbled on a piece of paper and propped by someone who had called in in the very early morning.
"Tabby cat found dead on the path to the studio this morning. Have put in bin."
I went cold. The studio is an old converted chapel in a residential area and I knew that cat would have a home and an owner worrying frantically about it. I hated to think that they wouldn't know and I couldn't bear to think of someone's loved baby being in the bin and ending up emptied into the bin lorry and carried off to the tip.
I decided I had no option but to start knocking on doors and asking if anyone had a tabby. As luck would have as I walked down the drive I met a lady getting into her car. When asked if she knew anyone with a tabby cat, she immediately said yes, her next door neighbour, but she often looked after him and fed him for her and he often mixed in with her own two cats. She sounded relieved "It'll be Buster, has he got trapped inside your place?" I had to explain, no, it was worse than that. Obviously she was upset, she said her neighbour would be devastated and she wanted to get him out of the bin so her neighbour could bury him properly. We emptied the whole bin, by this time full of rubbish and sawdust that we all had been unknowingly throwing in on top of poor Buster. There he was at the bottom. He had a bit of blood on his nose and around his neck/jaw area, and he was absolutely board stiff. It had been bitterly cold last night, about minus 6. We reckoned he had probably been hit by a car, crawled off and either died from his injuries (though he didn't appear terribly injured) or hypothermia. Unless he was attacked by a fox. He was a lovely big tabby, with a beautiful thick coat and it was awful to think just the day before he was a young, healthy cat. The lady said she was feeding him that night as his owner was away and she had been out loads of times trying to shout him and knew something was wrong as he hadn't come as he always did, the minute he was called.
We got him out and both had a little cry over him. She was going to clean the sawdust off him and take him for her neighbour. I'm now haunted by the fact that had we put our scenery away the night before, as we often do, straight after the play has finished, we might have been around to see and help him before he died so horribly. But we'd had to wait until the morning this time for the hired van to be available.
Sorry this has been long. I didn't even know Buster, only saw him dead. But when you are a cat owner yourself you can just imagine what they have been like and what a tragedy it is. I'm glad it got sorted though and he was taken to be buried and not left in the bin. I don't blame the man who put him there - no doubt he thought it better than leaving him on the path - and non animal people just don't think like pet owners do. There's been a sadness hanging over me today and I wanted to post on here to try and get it out of my system.
RIP Angel Buster. I wish I could have helped you earlier.
