- Joined
- Mar 19, 2016
- Messages
- 19
- Purraise
- 3
Something happened the other night that is really bothering me, and I just wanted to get this group's take on it. Also, I think this is a good place to vent with people who are understanding. I'll try not to make this too long. I have been taking care of 4 feral cats. It used to be 7, but three have disappeared. The cats have been spayed and I feed them every night and morning. About 4-6 weeks ago, a black and white kitty that I will call "Socks" showed up and started hanging around my house. And I'm going to call it a "she" because that's how I thought of her, but it could have been a male. Anyway, she wasn't friendly. I could put my fingers up to her nose, but if I tried to pet her, she would back away or take a swipe at me. About 4 days ago, around 8:30 at night, to make a long story short, she was attacked by three little dogs in the street on the side of my house. By the time I figured out what all the barking was about, and found her (the dogs ran off as soon as I approached), she couldn't get up. I put a towel over her and put her in a box and brought her in the house, but she didn't make it through the night. Here's the kicker..... about 4 days before this happened, I went outside on our carport, and there were three little black dogs out there. They were very friendly and all had collars with tags, so I was able to call the owners and they came and picked them up. I was all proud of myself because I got them back to their owner. Well, they were the same dogs that attacked the cat. The smallest was probably 8 pounds, and the larger ones were maybe 15 pounds (?). I don't understand why she couldn't get away from them! I've tried to take a realist view point in taking care of these outdoor cats. I know they face many dangers and that each night could be the last that I see them. As I mentioned, 3 have gone missing and I'm assuming something has happened to them. And I'm sad about that, but what happened with Socks has been bothering me so much more. Ugh! I just wish I could go back in time and chase those damn little dogs away much sooner. So how do you all handle it when something happens to one of your outdoor cats? Do you just expect that as feral cats, they just won't live very long?