Pussy Safety

I didn't sleep well last night.
When I was driving home through Dyserth around 1.30 am I saw a cat crossing the road in front of me. It was on the opposite side of the road but crouched as I neared it and just as I thought I had safely passed it , it inexplicably ran back where it had come, right under the wheels of the car.
And the car bounced noisily over it.
I stopped and got out but the cat was nowhere to be seen.  I Suspect it was seriously injured and had run off to die somewhere.
It made me feel quite sick.
When I got home , I watched a banal recording of the final Downton Abbey until the wee small hours of the morning, then I lay in bed wide awake until 4 ish listening to The Professor breathing next to me and Winnie snoring from her living room arm chair.
Funny, I can nurse the sickest of patients and deal with the dying and the grief stricken. And I can see the saddest of sights at work but , I always sleep the sleep of a baby after I get home.
Didn't work for me last night!
Albert this morning
Safe, sound and bored





70 comments:

  1. Ooh dear... at least it resulted in another award-winning title...

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  2. Anonymous10:54 am

    These things happen John, we all know it was purely accidental.
    You're not one of the idiot speed freaks who think country roads are racetracks.

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  3. Oh dear, that's a horrid thing to happen.
    Big hugs to you

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  4. My son is sure he hit a fox going home the other night, actually morning as he had been working until 2am, He went back but could not see anything apart from some bits of his car grille and his light. During the day his daughter in law went out with the baby in the pram and saw a large dead fox near a wall. At least it was dead and any suffering was over. He said, like yourself, that it lingered with him for a while. He is a thirty years police officer and has seen it all, but like yourself and others, we all feel for the innocents. Cars are a necessary evil at times. Love Andie xxx

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  5. Poor cat. I've made sure my cat has been in before dark these past few days. Fireworks make animals act most out of character.

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    1. Made me worry more and more about young Albert

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  6. That incident would have kept me awake too - wondering where the cat had gone and how I might have driven differently to avoid running over it. Once I hit two loose dogs that ran across the road in Crookes but there was nothing I could do to avoid it. They just ran out from behind a parked car. One of them had to be put down. Very upsetting.

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  7. I can imagine your upset, I would be exactly the same.

    We have to keep our pussy's safe .... give Albert a cuddle.

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  8. It's a truly horrible feeling that never lets go, running over a cat. When I was in Paris some 30 years ago a guy I'd met in a bar was driving me back to my hotel after we'd gone back to his place for a bit of 'socialising'. On the way in largely silent streets I saw with horror that we were approaching a crouching cat in the middle of the road, looking our way with eyes ablaze but apparently frozen motionless in the headlights. My companion did belatedly try to avoid it but was going too fast. The sickening bump as the car went over has never left me and still haunts, three decades later. (Sorry, but just had to get that off my chest.)

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  9. Oh dear - hugs from me xxx

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  10. I know how you feel. I thought I hit a cat, I am pretty sure I did and stopped and ran back and searched and searched and could not find it. I cried and cried. My husband told me it was OK, it was able to run away but he was very good at trying to always make me feel better.
    I am so sorry this happened ... it is sad and haunting. But as my husband said, it might have been knocked over , not run over and is somewhere bruised and battered but not dead.
    Sending love.. C

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  11. There, there, it happens. Do take care.

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  12. Such an awful thing to happen and sadly these things happen frequently. I had a similar thing happen years ago and the cat ran off but I think it was injured. It haunted me for ages .

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  13. Poor puss cat. When we bought our first ever newish car, as in not an old banger, we drove home in it all excited and feeling we were going up in the world. As we went up a steepish country lane hubby put his foot down and suddenly out of nowhere there was a small bunny rabbit right in the middle of the road, we hit it dead on, no time to stop. I looked back to see if there was anything to be done for it but it had vanished, nowhere to be seen. Like your cat, probably gone off to die.I never liked that car after that, it gave me no pleasure, I always remembered that little rabbit.

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    1. Baby rabbits often survive because they freeze ...hopefully in between the tyres!

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  14. We live in a rural area and in the last couple of weeks I've seen five deer dead in the road after being struck by a car; it always breaks my heart and makes it hard to close my eyes at the end of the day.

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    1. Me too :( I hate the fact that someone is driving that fast on my roads that they could not stop for the deer, what if it had been someone on a bicycle.

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    2. You don't really have to be driving fast for a deer to hit you. They can come out of nowhere, usually bounding over hedges or out of the woods and on to the road. Unfortunately, it's a fact of country life that at some point this will happen to you.

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    3. My twin sister lost her horse in a caraccident at night
      It was killed and it demolished the tax that hit it

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    4. Oh lordy, I never thought a deer would hit a car ! it is the other way around here !

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    5. Oh no .. not a horse :(

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  15. It IS such a sick feeling in the gut. I brake for turtles and squirrels. The only time I don't brake is for snakes. I was out and about before sun up about 10 days ago to go to shop for what was needed. I was going about 20 mph and out of the corner of my eye say it....a deer. hit the brakes but still hit him...this makes 3 in the last 4 years. I felt bad but he jumped up and ran....so don't know how bad he was.. One more deer ad my van is going to fly to pieces!

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    1. lol, me too. My son told me I would cause an accident, slamming on brakes for a squirrel.

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  16. How awful for you, I would feel the same.
    I remember that bumping sound as I once ran over a rabbit. It took me a long time to forget about it.

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  17. So many of us know what that horrible feeling.

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  18. Just remembered . . . many, many years ago when our children were under ten we had been out for the day, and travelling along the A1 going home. Suddenly there was a cat in the road, we heard a little bang and the car bumped a bit but carried on. The children had all seen the cat and were looking out of the back window. Daddy, daddy is the cat alright? Husband looks in the wing mirror and stated that he definitely saw it run off. Children appeased, I looked at him and whispered, " Did you really?" He said softly, " We are on the A1, travelling at 60 miles per hour, what the hell do you think!" It was a kindness of him really. I have never been able to believe a single sodding word he has spoken since. Love Andie xxx

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  19. Oh, John. So sorry to hear this. It's definitely a terrible, sickening feeling to hit an animal. But you couldn't help it and of all people you would never deliberately harm any animal. Plus think of all the animals you've saved and nursed back to health when they were sick or injured. xx

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  20. Anonymous2:23 pm

    It's hard isn't it? I've run over a couple of squirrels in my driving 'career'. It's horrible. You can almost feel their little lives pass through the tires and into your own body. Poor little kitty. I hope it went quickly.

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  21. It is a horrible feeling, no matter what living thing is run over. I try to console myself by saying at least it's relatively quick, and is it really any worse than being killed by a natural predator? Ah, there's nothing really to say that will help, is there ...

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  22. What I can't understand is squirrel logic!? They run safely across the road then stop, turn and run back across the road under the wheels of a car!! Maybe it's natural selection at it's worst.

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    1. I know, squirrel logic ... it is so illogical .. :)

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  23. Three years ago at my previous house a BMW pulled up outside and a man knocked on the door and said he had run over one of my cats. Thomas was the only cat outside. I went out to the road, with the man saying how sorry he was, nothing he could do, and he had felt the cat bounce and hit the underside of his car. No cat was to be seen. I said it wasn't his fault and he drove off. I spent all evening fretting about Thomas, searching and calling. Had to eventually give up and go to bed. In the morning got up and Thomas strolled in to join the other three for breakfast. I picked him and hugged him and he squirmed as if to say what the hell are you doing now woman and jumped down and got on with his breakfast.

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    1. I love a happy ending to a dead animal story :)

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    2. Thanks for that Rachel.........

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  24. Horrid. Worse with a child in the car. My only casualty to date--a chipmunk that changed course.

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    1. What is it with those little chipmunks ?? I had one do that ... back and forth ... it had a harder time than I do making up its mind .. I slammed on brakes, it was possible at that moment and it escaped to dither on somewhere safer, I hope.

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  25. That's the worst feeling! Many years ago, I was driving down the street and a cat on the curb looked me right in the eyes, edged forward and stopped, edged forward and stopped, and then ran just in time for me to hit it.

    I felt like throwing up.

    I'm sorry this happened to you.

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  26. On my very first night time drive with my father's car - I was 18 years old - I drove over a squirrel. I can stell feel it deep in my belly, a dreadful feeling, and I will be 58 soon.

    I know how you feel.

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    1. I thought I had run over an opossum when I was 18 and just starting to drive. I went to a gas station, crying, told the man at the station. He went and looked and said there was nothing there, it got away ok.
      I have no idea if he lied but it really is a terrible feeling .

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  27. It's such an awful feeling. So sorry about the accident, the poor cat, and how the event made you suffer.

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  28. oh no...so sorry this happened to you. i hit a ground hog a couple years ago and cried for days.

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  29. Not the best experience by any measure, John. Take care.

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  30. Oh dear, not nice at all. I hate seeing anything on the roadside as I get terribly upset. I'm so bad that if there's nothing around late at night I have been know to swerve a little to avoid moths!

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  31. Oh, John. That's the worst kind of feeling, isn't it? -- to think that you hurt an innocent. I'm sorry you experienced that. And my heart breaks for that little life.
    No much can be consolation at times like this, but you meant no harm and you do such good for so many other innocent little lives.

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  32. It was not willful. You did all you could.

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  33. I was up the entire night too. Mostly about worrying where my poor Ma is going to go now that the vendors of her new house have pulled out of the deal 3 weeks before she was due to move. I was calling them all sorts of bar stewards. Why do people do that??

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    1. So sorry John, I don;t know how you deal with it - I feel the same about baby rabbits on our lane, and pheasants- although I do think that a cat would be the bitter end.

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    2. Hope abounds! We've got a viewing on a nice little cottage tomorrow which will be perfect for her. The only thing is, when they say 'offers over' how much to put in? The last house she put in 10 grand over and got it but would probably have got it for less, which didn't matter in the end because the vendors pulled out before the missives were signed. At least with this new one, the house is standing empty so less risk of vendors doing the dirty. Keep your fingers and everything else crossed. Stress we could do without, to be honest!

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    3. You are so good..if it was my mum.....shed be in shady pines

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    4. It's necessary to be good when you're parents are very aware of their own mortality. She's 84 now and it hasn't always been easy with her, she can still be a bit of a besom (pronounced 'bisim') but it costs nothing to make sure her latter years are happy and comfortable.

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  34. Bless your heart dear man x

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  35. Sorry for that. Sometimes it can't be helped as the small creatures become so confused. I would have been disappointed in you if you hadn't felt bad. Life is life, no matter...

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  36. Ach, hate when that happens. Big hugs.

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  37. Our 18 year old cat was killed in a freak accident 3 years ago. Horrendous for all concerned. She was senile and we think slightly deaf. She was laying on our drive probably waiting for me to come in from work. Unluckily my son was back before me, failed to see her asleep, reversed into the drive and killed her instantly. He was actually oblivious to it all until our neighbour opposite came running over pointing it out as he got out of his car. Needless to say my son was devastated. She was a great pet. We now have a devil cat!

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  38. I was once driving down a main road with my daughter, there was a large black dog as we thought which had been hit in the middle. It turned out to be a roll of shaggy carpet, we cried anyway.

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  39. Cats are amazingly resilient. You probably didn't kill it if it ran off. and it was probably a feral cat, and not someone's pet.That's why pet cats should be kept indoors,

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  40. Cats are amazingly resilient. You probably didn't kill it if it ran off. and it was probably a feral cat, and not someone's pet.That's why pet cats should be kept indoors,

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  41. There's a Pagan custom I use. When you see a killed animal on the road. you hold your hand out, palm down and say. "Road Kill, Blood Spill," then you turn your hand palm up and say "Spirit Free, Blessed Be," and you visualise the spirit of the animal passing on peacefully to whatever comes next. They can be killed so quickly and unexpectedly by the car, their spirit can get trapped. Also, it helps me to do it too. It is a way to express my sadness and to help at the same time.

    If the animal is only injured, of course you stop and do what you can! I have an injured animal box in the back of my car full of useful things like towels, a pillowslip, heavy gloves and such.

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  42. My sister is a cardiac surgeon and will crack open your chest, if need be, in a flash! But let some poor animal get hurt or sick and she's useless. She said it's because her human patients can understand what's happening while the animal doesn't. I accidentally backed my car over my cat. It has taken me years to be able to tell my friends what happened. I can imagine how it bothered you, John, being the animal lover that you are.

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  43. I would hate it if I actually ran over an animal. I've had some narrow escapes but no fatalities. I once encountered a dog wandering casually across a dual carriageway and had to swerve violently to avoid it. Glad to say there was no other car in my path.

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  44. Oh, that's a terrible feeling. Sometimes it's unavoidable, though, no matter how carefully we drive. Animals just don't understand cars!

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  45. Was it a banal recording of the final episode, or a recording of the banal final episode? They're "hyping" the final season of Downton Abbey unceasingly here on the other side of the Pond. Please don't tell me the final season's not worth watching.

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