yesterday was A Day
And not because of COVID.
Yesterday, while working, I heard a THUD out in the street.
I looked out, saw a car stopped, and just behind it, a furry tail flicking. Someone had run over a neighbour's cat.
I ran out, but the waving must have been her dying throes, because there was no life left in her. The neighbour (actually the neighbour's sister who is staying with her) came out and saw her pet, and screamed. The driver had driven on. The neighbour picked her cat off the side of the road and set her on the grassy verge, screaming with grief.
I went for a cardboard box to put the pet in, and got some sand to put down on the blood all over the road. The cat was buried later in the afternoon, and the neighbour came over to thank me just before I was heading out to make a delivery of food for the local 'halfway house' and picking up a few things myself.
I don't remember the car, I was too focused on the animal. The car was also obscured by a parked car, so all I saw was the flicking tail and the car that had maybe stopped. Maybe they stopped further down the road; I have vague memories of a car that looked like it had stopped, and a few people who'd come out. But otherwise...nothing.
--
To be honest, I've been expecting something like this to happen for a while. There's a park that's frequented by kids parties and creche meetings down the road, and a walkway that runs between three parallel streets half a house up from me. Sometimes I see little kids skid to a stop at the end of the pathway, right before it hits the road. A number of smallies have stacked in the grassy patches to either side of the path, but tbe path itself crosses the road before continuing on past my street to the next.
I just thought it would be a kid's body curled up on the ground. A cat isn't better, but at least people would stop for that, and maybe drivers might think about going a little slower.
I posted the accident on the local group; somewhat snarkily. I was pissed off that the driver didn't stop, and also grumpy that people were speeding down the road.
The comments I saw were mostly sympathetic. There were the usual cat-haters, and the people who feel that grief is only to be allowed where moral standards are upheld (ie. "the outdoors cat probably killed many native animals, therefore it shouldn't be mourned" and "someone who really cared about their cat would keep it indoors").
I didn't get to read them all - I was driving errands. But by the time I got home and looked at the post, it had been deleted by a mod with the note for the group's "Rule 1: be kind and respectful". Kind and respectful to whom, exactly? The driver who had so little respect for a woman's grief that they didn't so much as stop?
I'd put up a more personal FB post, and screenshotted the local group post in the comments. Most of my friends couldn't find the disrespect in the post, but then, it is entirely possible that there's a fairly good reason they're my friends...
Anyway, the bit that is nagging at me is how few church people I would have expected to see comment on my personal post. Not that I'm in any way the life of the church party, as I discovered late last week when it turned out the minister who manages our service was convalescing at home with a COVID diagnosis. I mean, I am waaaaaaay out of these circles, but it did sting a bit. Like, is there an SMS-tree that I am simply not on?
At least one of the mods of the local FB group is from my church. And the post vanished SO FAST and with absolutely no comment to me. I was wondering if maybe the driver was someone the mod knows, likely with kids in the car, doesn't want to answer questions or face recriminations, and, IDK, asked for the post to be taken down. Suburban soccer moms, you know...
That's my conspiracy theorist talking. I know it's probably as simple as me starting the post withDear person who ran over the cat in [street] this afternoon, I hope you reached where you were going in good time, seeing as you didn't stop and check on the animal you killed.
Anyway, I find myself sitting at my desk and computer today, feeling more than a little discombobulated as I stare out the window, looking up at every car that speeds past, flinching at every bump and clatter and scrape of a car fender on a too-high driveway.
'Trauma' seems like the wrong description for it, but it's certainly unsettling.
Yesterday, while working, I heard a THUD out in the street.
I looked out, saw a car stopped, and just behind it, a furry tail flicking. Someone had run over a neighbour's cat.
I ran out, but the waving must have been her dying throes, because there was no life left in her. The neighbour (actually the neighbour's sister who is staying with her) came out and saw her pet, and screamed. The driver had driven on. The neighbour picked her cat off the side of the road and set her on the grassy verge, screaming with grief.
I went for a cardboard box to put the pet in, and got some sand to put down on the blood all over the road. The cat was buried later in the afternoon, and the neighbour came over to thank me just before I was heading out to make a delivery of food for the local 'halfway house' and picking up a few things myself.
I don't remember the car, I was too focused on the animal. The car was also obscured by a parked car, so all I saw was the flicking tail and the car that had maybe stopped. Maybe they stopped further down the road; I have vague memories of a car that looked like it had stopped, and a few people who'd come out. But otherwise...nothing.
--
To be honest, I've been expecting something like this to happen for a while. There's a park that's frequented by kids parties and creche meetings down the road, and a walkway that runs between three parallel streets half a house up from me. Sometimes I see little kids skid to a stop at the end of the pathway, right before it hits the road. A number of smallies have stacked in the grassy patches to either side of the path, but tbe path itself crosses the road before continuing on past my street to the next.
I just thought it would be a kid's body curled up on the ground. A cat isn't better, but at least people would stop for that, and maybe drivers might think about going a little slower.
I posted the accident on the local group; somewhat snarkily. I was pissed off that the driver didn't stop, and also grumpy that people were speeding down the road.
The comments I saw were mostly sympathetic. There were the usual cat-haters, and the people who feel that grief is only to be allowed where moral standards are upheld (ie. "the outdoors cat probably killed many native animals, therefore it shouldn't be mourned" and "someone who really cared about their cat would keep it indoors").
I didn't get to read them all - I was driving errands. But by the time I got home and looked at the post, it had been deleted by a mod with the note for the group's "Rule 1: be kind and respectful". Kind and respectful to whom, exactly? The driver who had so little respect for a woman's grief that they didn't so much as stop?
I'd put up a more personal FB post, and screenshotted the local group post in the comments. Most of my friends couldn't find the disrespect in the post, but then, it is entirely possible that there's a fairly good reason they're my friends...
Anyway, the bit that is nagging at me is how few church people I would have expected to see comment on my personal post. Not that I'm in any way the life of the church party, as I discovered late last week when it turned out the minister who manages our service was convalescing at home with a COVID diagnosis. I mean, I am waaaaaaay out of these circles, but it did sting a bit. Like, is there an SMS-tree that I am simply not on?
At least one of the mods of the local FB group is from my church. And the post vanished SO FAST and with absolutely no comment to me. I was wondering if maybe the driver was someone the mod knows, likely with kids in the car, doesn't want to answer questions or face recriminations, and, IDK, asked for the post to be taken down. Suburban soccer moms, you know...
That's my conspiracy theorist talking. I know it's probably as simple as me starting the post withDear person who ran over the cat in [street] this afternoon, I hope you reached where you were going in good time, seeing as you didn't stop and check on the animal you killed.
Anyway, I find myself sitting at my desk and computer today, feeling more than a little discombobulated as I stare out the window, looking up at every car that speeds past, flinching at every bump and clatter and scrape of a car fender on a too-high driveway.
'Trauma' seems like the wrong description for it, but it's certainly unsettling.