Cats

At my new job, we have one-to-one meetings every week, and as today was my one week anniversary, it was my turn to have a sit down with a Director at the nearby Caribou Coffee and on the walk there I had to literally step over the remains of a dead cat.

If you ask anyone who knows me, I’m quite the sucker for cats, not only do we have 3 at home, but back in the day my family had a cat for a good number of years. So this sight was quite upsetting for me, I dunno if it was due to the fact it looked like it had been laying there for quite some time, or that it was laying in the cycle lane so a car (I assume) had crossed the line at a narrow pedestrian crossway and hit it, or the thought of someone looking for their cat and eventually finding it there, but I doubt that’s happening as I just went out for some fresh air and some 7 hours after my initial encounter with the dead cat, it’s still laying on the side of a busy road. So yeah, I’m pretty upset about the whole thing.

I’d be devastated if anything happened to one of our cats, I’ve already had one cat die on me during my life, and it’s upsetting to think about that even today some 9 years later. I’m now more watchful about where they go as we have multiple exits in our house as opposed to the single door in the condo, especially since Felix managed to get himself locked in the garage overnight not long after we moved in.

I’m also soft with the cats, I hate to be the bad guy when it comes to punishing them, I just can’t do it. I hate to see them “suffer” even though they sometimes deserve to be scolded. Especially Sally, as he was made the scapegoat for any and all cat related issues back at Phil and Erika’s, not saying he was completely innocent, but he still bore the brunt of everything.

Now I’m trying to contact the relevant people to try and get the cat removed, hopefully in a dignified way, not just scooped up and tossed into a garbage truck, but that’s most likely how it’s going to be… And part of me knows it’s still going to be there tomorrow morning, and this whole cycle will begin again.

EDIT (6:31pm): I called Charlotte/Mecklenburg County about this and they transferred me to the city’s roads dept. who upon hearing my request that the cat be removed said it would be taken care of… But when I left the office at 5 it was still there. So sad…

EDIT (15/02/07 8:10am): Yep, it’s still there, that’s been at least two nights it’s laid there and to be honest, it’s quite a mess…

EDIT (15/02/07 3:22pm): I went for lunch at 12 o’clock and the cat had been removed, it made me feel somewhat better. I just hate to think that if anything happened to one of our cats and we were out of town that it would lay at the side of a road for 3 days.