The story of my kitten, and her tragedy.

[savage1987]

For those who care, apart for the few who know already, while I was in Britain recently I received the news that my beautiful kitten had been hit and killed by a car. Only tonight I heard the full story, and I wanted to share it somewhere so I didn't feel like I was dealing with it alone, and because she was such an amazing kitten that I can't help but feel it deserves to be recorded somewhere, even if it is just on an internet forum. It's heartbreaking for me to write this, because it means thinking about all the things I miss most about her, and even though she was only in my life for five of her seven short months in the world, she made such an impression, the kind that anyone who has ever had a pet - and especially anyone who has lost a pet - will understand.

Tabitha was born February 9th, 2009, she was among an unwanted litter that was rescued by a cat shelter from being put down. She came into my life when she was around 2 months old. She was always to be an indoor kitten, we decided this from the very start. No way would we let her run around outside where we couldn't take care of her, but we did have her microchipped, her collar engraved, and she was vaccinated against everything just in case she did escape. Unfortunately as my relationship broke down, and I left the house, she began to get very edgy and panicky, and she would try to get outside whenever a door was open, and it was this reaction of hers that led her to the one road she shouldn't have been on. This is hard for me to write, and I think pictures say a lot more than words in some situations. Unfortunately we didn't forsee her early death so we never really focused on getting great photos of her, and these are the best I could find.



























All I needed to be truly happy: a glass of milk, and my kitten.





These were the two things I cared about most in the world.






(red is me..)
melbourne cup day
3 november. its an important date. we cant forget it
i know
can you tell me about when it happened please
that weekend i'd gotten her a new collar, because when she was gone for like 2 days a few days beforehand, she somehow arrived back without her collar
it was a pretty pink one with a pink tag. i remember the man who engraved it, it was so lovely... it had her name and a tiny engraved paw print on one side...
and he wrote "call mum" and my mobile number on the other side
in hindsight, what amazing luck i had that new tag done. the old tag still had your number on it. who knows what would have happened to her if no one was able to contact us.
i still have it
but anyway i was at work on the tuesday
i noticed i had a missed call on my phone. i had to run across to the jewellers over the road to drop something off so i took my phone with me. i listened to the voicemail message when i was at the jewellers
it was a woman saying something along the lines of hi, is this mum, im calling because i think ive found your cat. she's been hit by a car and shes in a pretty bad state. ill look after it for now but please call me back
i freaked out and went back into work and asked cathy if i could make a phone call. she said sure, so i called back the woman in the back office where it was quiet. cathy and susie were there too.
well
i called up the woman
she said is tabitha yours
i said yes
she said she's been hit by a car
i was like oh no
and then the woman just said, she didnt make it
and i burst into tears, just started crying
and the woman said quietly, im so sorry, i dont know who did it, i just found her near my house. she's died
did she make it to a vet or anything
no i think it was fairly quick. mark handled her body, he saw the damage and told me it would have been quick.
anyway, cathy started crying from hearing my end of the conversation
i organised with the woman for her to take tabi back to my house in half an hours time
i called mark and asked him to go to my house to meet her there
he told me when she arrived, the woman had tabi on a coles green back thing
mark put her on her side, lying in her little pink bed with her good side facing outwards. so i didnt see how hurt she was. mark told me it was pretty bad though.
he put her in the bed in a big flat crate thing he had from his work. the coles bag and the crate are still in the front yard, you might have noticed them. I cant touch them or go near them.
anyway at work cathy immediately said sam you can go home, and she took me all the way back to my car at gosnells station in her own car. it was the nicest most amazing thing she could have done.
so i got in my car at the station, drove home, and when i got home tabi was on her little bed on the crate on the coffee table and mark was on the couch waiting for me, crying just as hard as i was
i know you think he's a loser stoner, but he absolutely adored tabi too. her death hit him really hard as well. just thought you should know he's not as heartless as you probably think.
it would have hit anyone hard
we took her in the car and drove to the kenwick vet
and the woman there was so nice
and she gave me all the information for the body, and she and the nurse took the body away and asked if i wanted the collar, i said i did, and i said goodbye to her. they brought me the collar after a few minutes.
and that was it.
they were really nice to her at the vet.
im crying so hard.



She was a wonderful kitten, and will be sorely missed, and never forgotten.


Thanks to anyone who took the time to read this, I appreciate it.

Sam

[Tim Smtih]

Similar thing happened to me years ago, it sucks. But only one thing can be taken away from all this. Cats need to be kept in doors at all times. They are prone to wandering and as such will cross roads and then it's a game of chance if they are hit by a car or not.

[danja]

Harsh Sam, I'm really not a cat guy but I'm still moved by your story.

Chin up buddy, the good news is once you're ready for a new pet you can get a dog, they're mostly too dumb to get onto the road in the first place.

[azkwazere]

Harsh Sam, I'm really not a cat guy but I'm still moved by your story.

Chin up buddy, the good news is once you're ready for a new pet you can get a dog, they're mostly too dumb to get onto the road in the first place.

maybe, but then you get neighbours who are tools who feed it rat bate amd you get to watch your childhood dog die from the inside out...very slowly.

aZk.

[PaulSV6]

Sorry to hear bout this, mate.
My cat passed away in Oct 2007 from old age, so i know exactly what ur going through.

[BXHD]

thats a horrible story. so sorry to hear that mate
i know what it feels like to loose pets, my sister and i both got a kitten each when we were younger and they were from the same litter. her cat got bitten by a snakes several times and survived, but one time both our cats went out and i found my cat and immediately knew she was bitten by a snake, so i started giving her sailine water (the vets do this to flush their system). me and my sister were to scared to go outside with the snakes and we figured her cat was fine, but when she went out to find him in the morning, he was half dead and i remember her running inside screaming with him flopping in her arms with wide eyes and struggling to breathe. it was too late.

ive had my cat for 9 years know since she was a kitten and i dont know what id do if something was to happen to her, the thought makes me sick. i left her with my parents when i moved home because being a country cat, i knew she wouldnt last long in the city.

alot of people dont understand how you can become so attatched to a cat, i do, and im truely heartbroken by ur story

[Ristof]

Sorry to here mate I know what it feels like
I lost my 6yr old earlier this and I have no idea what happened to her which is the hardess thing. I am not sure if she is dead or been catnapped. It has been over 6mths since she went missing.
It's harder when you don't have closure

Also this year my wifes cat that lived at her mums place (our place now) got caught in a rabbit claw trap and lost her front leg

[TVR-190]

ya i gotta agree with minux, as much as it pains me...


We almost had our first dog run over when it snuck out, we really keep an eye on our dog now and make sure it cant get out unless we're with it. Pets are like a children, you gonna let your kids out front running on the road when your not looking.

Sorry for your loss though Sam. we just lost our dog a few months back due to old age and then the new pup had to be put down due to bad gallstones

[Jesterarts]

This thread should be moved to:

Cat-World - Cat Forums & Cat Message Boards

Cat shouldn't have been outside.

I don't get all the recent teary threads on here... the guys with his gf issues, there was some other woman related sob story and not a kitty related sob story.

I had a dog for 13years, he was my best mate... when he died from a rare and aggressive cancer that took him from full of energy to barely able to walk in 2 weeks, I shed a tear, though I didn't see the need to start a thread about it.

Think of it this way, this is 'The Pub', if you let this story rip on a friday night at the local the birds would tell you to HTFU.

Maybe we need a new sections, like 'The Couch' were people can go and post teary stories and ask for personal advise, that way I can avoid it and not come off like a prick in one post.

My advice, probably deal through these sort of issues with mates have known you and how you felt about the cat.

Probably a better shoulder to cry on and have a few beers with.

Cheers

[azkwazere]

Maybe we need a new sections, like 'The Couch' were people can go and post teary stories and ask for personal advise, that way I can avoid it and not come of like a prick in one post.

hahaha we had one, it was called "the Lounge"

lol

aZk.

[garth]

sorry to hear about your loss, when i was a kid, had a little german sheapard puppy escape from our yard during a storm, and some tool thought it would be fun to speed up and hit the dog, now as a kid i didnt understand it, and to this day i still dont understand it.

fair enough, if i see a dog or a animal on the road, if safe to do so i will slow down, unfortunatly thats not always the case, just the other week i hit a possum on the highway at speed.

but to those people who speed up and aim for animals, thats a jailable offence, and i sure do hope you get caught and taken care off.

[Jesterarts]

If you have an opinion, give it. Keep it mature.

The cat shouldn't have been outside, but it got out by accident.

I still don't think this thread has much of a point, but it also hasn't broken any JC rules thus it's back.

Any issues, feel free to PM me.

Regards,

J.

[savage1987]

Thanks Jester, and yes I have updated the OP with some information I forgot to include the first time around. She was an indoor cat, who escaped completely by accident. I know some people will still find this thread stupid and pointless, I'm not looking for sympathy, I just wanted the story recorded somewhere.

[Tsunamix]

I have a Cat. Insane, wicked, sometimes evil, scary, possum killing rat eating thing. And a sook.
Not a lap cat. Inside and out.

I'd be lost without him.

[VS_Pete_1]

Sorry to hear mate.

[nemesis_adrasteia]

sad story mate a similar thing happened to me, my cat was about 1 year old and black as night so he was very hard to see at night especially on a country road.

and people if you dont like this thread dont read it simple as that

[Zuicider]

i dont like cats they make me itch, and that cat didnt like me

[roon_VR]

im very moved by your post. I have a burmese cat who is nearly 2 years old and i wouldn't know what i'd do if i lost her.

[danja]

Grief - we all have different ways of dealing with it, no need to rip into the guy.

Talk about kicking a man while he's down.

[savage1987]

i dont like cats they make me itch, and that cat didnt like me

She just didn't get to know you well enough. She didn't like Stan either at the start, but after a while she fell in love

[Caity05]

That brought a bit of a tear to my eye; we lost my dog earlier this year to a paralysis tick & although it's completely different circumstances, the loss of a pet is just horrible. Ziggy was a gorgeous Husky, was only 2 yrs when she died & it was just the most heartbreaking thing.

I completely feel for you mate.

[Evolution_Ends_Here]

For those who care, apart for the few who know already, while I was in Britain recently I received the news that my beautiful kitten had been hit and killed by a car. Only tonight I heard the full story, and I wanted to share it somewhere so I didn't feel like I was dealing with it alone, and because she was such an amazing kitten that I can't help but feel it deserves to be recorded somewhere, even if it is just on an internet forum. It's heartbreaking for me to write this, because it means thinking about all the things I miss most about her, and even though she was only in my life for five of her seven short months in the world, she made such an impression, the kind that anyone who has ever had a pet - and especially anyone who has lost a pet - will understand.

Tabitha was born February 9th, 2009, she was among an unwanted litter that was rescued by a cat shelter from being put down. She came into my life when she was around 2 months old. She was always to be an indoor kitten, we decided this from the very start. No way would we let her run around outside where we couldn't take care of her, but we did have her microchipped, her collar engraved, and she was vaccinated against everything just in case she did escape. Unfortunately as my relationship broke down, and I left the house, she began to get very edgy and panicky, and she would try to get outside whenever a door was open, and it was this reaction of hers that led her to the one road she shouldn't have been on. This is hard for me to write, and I think pictures say a lot more than words in some situations. Unfortunately we didn't forsee her early death so we never really focused on getting great photos of her, and these are the best I could find.

Sam i Know the feeling, ive had cat's all my life its the worst feeling ever it like loosing a family member, i had to go through this 2 years ago when we losed our siamese cat snowy, ive got to make sure i don't loose my cat Shelly Kitten too since she always goes on the road, yourcat looks so gorgeous aswell, very sorry for your loss, as mentioned earlier in this thread i sugest you join Cat-World - Cat Forums & Cat Message Boards,

Thanks

[VXHBD6]

Sorry to hear that mate

[Zeussy]

Made me sink back in my seat a bit...

I have been around cats all my life, and can fully understand what your going through, it sucks to lose a loved pet, especially for something other than 'old age'

I've been through it several times, each it doesnt get any easier... Just makes you really appreciate the time you do have with any pets, and how they all have a real personality.

Tabitha looks like she had a spoilt life, while it may have only been brief, (7 months) the 5 months with you would've been the best she could've hoped for..!!

She looks like a real playful little kitten, similar to one of my Sisters; that also was hit by a car.


Take it easy mate, and chin up..

[satos]

Sorry to hear about your cat.
I have had several cats over the years that have passed away due to old age, illness and one was hit by a car.One even disappeared never to be seen again.Every one of them broke mine and my families hearts.They are like family and each one of them had it's own personality.
Some posters on this forum are saying they shouldn't be roaming outside,but the fact is even if you train them well they will still wonder away from your property that is the way they are.
I hope you can get over this because I know how hard it is to lose a family pet.
If you get another kitten get it microchipped straight away because if it goes missing the authorities whether it be the local council,pound or even interstate can trace your cat back to you even if it has lost it's i.d collar.
All the best.