(no subject)

[nmg]

Mostly for my own benefit...

Not a great journey home. Someone had knocked a cat down on a busy road on our way home, and hadn't bothered stopping. Noone else was stopping, and the pedestrians on the pavement seemed a bit unsure about picking up the beast as it writhed around in the middle of the road, so ias pulled over (for she was driving) and I went to see what I could do. Poor beast had lost its lower jaw, and had quite a few scrapes. Didn't seem to be gurgling or having difficulty breathing, so I assume it hadn't punctured a lung, though it seemed likely that it had internal injuries given the scrapes.

Carried it to the side of the road, while one of the pedestrians got a cardboard box from a nearby shop. Another motorist offered to take the cat to a nearby vet, while I used the sink in the back room of the shop to wash the blood off my hands. I still need to wash the blood off my boots, which now reek of terrified cat.

Don't think the cat will survive, so I've been feeling a bit upset and impotent, but as ias has wisely pointed out a) it's better this way than the cat being left in the road for someone else to finish off, b) the vet can euthanise the cat, which is more humane than leaving it to die slowly and c) it'll be some consolation to the owners that someone cared enough to stop.