My little cat was struck by a car last night, I'm pretty pissed off

[NCC1701]

Re: My little cat was struck by a car last night, I'm pretty pissed of

My last cat was run over in December of 2008, luckily he was killed pretty much instantly, the alternative would have been much worse. He started having kidney problems about two years before he was run over, which according to the vet can lead to something like dementia in cats, and in the last couple of days before he died he started crossing the road in front of our house, almost like he was tired of life, he'd never done that before. We now have two new cats, both of whom I've instilled a deep fear of cars into from an early age.

 

[iBender]

Re: My little cat was struck by a car last night, I'm pretty pissed of

March 2010 was when I scraped this cat I knew off the road. My house would feed him, my cat would invite him into the house, we knew this 10 year old cat from when he was a kitten (who ran in our house oneday)... I heard people talking about a cat, in the road, outside... Saw my cat, looked out, saw a cat, went out and up to the cat and saw it was my neighbour's cat, informed the neighbours and helped scrape him off the road... That was the 2nd time a cat had been hit that week... and both times I looked to see where the cats were, but on the 2nd, it was one.

That cat was like my friend, when ever he would see me walking along or out in my garden, he would run up, brush up against me and say 'hello' in his own, cat like ways... He would sit roll and purr too, and sleep in my house much. - Which bothered his owners I must admit.
I miss that cat.

When ever I hear a fox outside or any animal sounds or a car suddenly stopping, I look for my cat; but she's never far anyway.

Something odd I remember about that night too... When I looked out and saw a cat lying in the road, I saw another black cat running around and even up to the body... Before another car or something scared the cat away... I don't know any black cats on this road and I never saw it since.

I am so sorry to hear about your little cat and a run in with a car.

 

[{ Emilia }]

Re: My little cat was struck by a car last night, I'm pretty pissed of

I strongly urge you to consider keeping him inside to avoid this sort of thing in the future.

Statistics indicate that the life span of an indoor cat is much longer than an outdoor cat. On average, an indoor cat lives twelve years but some cats can live for as many as twenty years. In comparison, an outdoor cat’s life expectancy is less than five years.

Link.

Link 2.

Link 3.

This. Letting cats out unattended is sooo last century. You wouldn't do that with a dog either, right?
It's just the nonsense opinion that "cats love their freedom" and are "more independent". It makes no sense and only projects human behaviour and feelings on the cat.

Is it too late to 'convert' him to indoors or can it be done? I suspect he won't be very happy about it.

After 3 years it's certainly not easy but you could just go for it now. I suppose the little guy will stay inside during his recovery anyway so see what happens if you don't let him out afterwards.
He'll probably start complaining but always remember: Cats don't need much room. They need something to do.
Give him something to do. (A second cat is usually best but that might not be an option for you and your cat's been "alone" for three years so it would take him some time to adapt to it, too.)
Stuff like this is always a good idea:

Just "planks" in random heights to give them the opportunity to climb a bit.
Or build something like this and put some dry cat food in it. Trying to get it out will keep him busy for a while.

Or (if you have the time) just spend time with him yourself. Play with him, teach him tricks (clicker training works great and my cat loves it: Basics), anything. Just keep him busy.

 

[Tora Ziyal]

Re: My little cat was struck by a car last night, I'm pretty pissed of

I'm so sorry to hear that. Hope he recovers quickly and completely!

I will hug my own as soon as I see them again. (I am still staying with my ex while I recover from surgery, and a petsitter is taking care of them, but I hope to stop by the house in a couple days.)

 

[Finn]

Re: My little cat was struck by a car last night, I'm pretty pissed of

Sorry to hear about the accident. Hope your cat will recover wonderfully.

I agree about the indoors thing. My wife's cat was once upon a time an outdoors cat when Miss Finn was a young girl. He'd disappear for days at a time. But after some years went by, he started to disappear for few weeks at a time. After several incidents, they got a collar with phone number. One day, after the cat was missing for about two weeks, someone in a nearby subdivison called and told my now MiL that the cat have been going over there and staying there because they were feeding him tuna. They had thought he was a stray.

That damn cat is 18, cranky and had been indoors for many years now with the in-laws.

 

[pigletsgiblets]

Re: My little cat was struck by a car last night, I'm pretty pissed of

I hope your cat makes a speedy recovery.

 

[SmoothieX]

Re: My little cat was struck by a car last night, I'm pretty pissed of

I hope your cat is OK. Honestly, I'm not a cat guy, but I know the bond people and their pets have, and it would mess me up if that happened to one of my dogs.

 

[Marie1]

Re: My little cat was struck by a car last night, I'm pretty pissed of

Due to the several neighbourhood cats killed by cars every year here, we let our cat out if he wants for the day (saves money on cat litter) and bring him in at night. He's also pretty well trained to stay away from the road. He was dragged under a car once and that damaged his feet etc. but that's a pretty painful lesson. And if your cat is recovering, it's a good time to train him to stay in- just make sure there's stuff to entertain him, other than your curtains.

Edit- make sure your cats are fixed, in addition to adding to the thousands of "surplus" animals being put down every year, a cat that can breed will wander away for even months at a time trying to do so... and often returns missing pieces of its body.

 

[Kestra]

Re: My little cat was struck by a car last night, I'm pretty pissed of

That is awesome! I want something like that for my cat.

 

[Spot's Meow]

Re: My little cat was struck by a car last night, I'm pretty pissed of

We take our cat on walks with a harness and leash and it is not humilating at all. He really enjoys it, though he hasn't ventured very far past the front door yet. He especially likes playing in and eating grass and plants. It has been a good thing for him, he is less aggressive now and seems to be happier in general. But, our cat has always acted more like a dog than he probably should. He wags his tail all the time and especially when he's happy and when he sees me getting the harness out he runs up to me all excited.

 

[Kemaiku]

Re: My little cat was struck by a car last night, I'm pretty pissed of

So sorry to hear about this, I used to walk my cat outdoors on a leash and she was just fine with it. But one of our neighbours set their huge dog on her while out for a walk one evening, the leash broke and she took off, took us hours to find her.

Since then shes been an entirely indoor cat and haven't had a problem since. Like the others I've set up little places for her to explore, run etc and shes a happy cat.

 

[Nerys Ghemor]

Re: My little cat was struck by a car last night, I'm pretty pissed of

Wouldn't your neighbor be liable, at least civilly, for attempting to deliberately harm your cat? Not a lot of things would make me "sue-happy," but where the life of my pet is involved, I'd be sorely tempted to sue to teach them a lesson about cruelty to animals, if there was any chance I'd have a case.

 

[Kemaiku]

Re: My little cat was struck by a car last night, I'm pretty pissed of

Wouldn't your neighbor be liable, at least civilly, for attempting to deliberately harm your cat? Not a lot of things would make me "sue-happy," but where the life of my pet is involved, I'd be sorely tempted to sue to teach them a lesson about cruelty to animals, if there was any chance I'd have a case.

They've been in trouble with the police quite a lot, at the time they were even being investigated for medical fraud of some kind, they were forced to move away not long after. And Alex was unharmed, so I'm not sure how much of a case we'd have had, the local authorities here are worse than useless.

 

[Miss Chicken]

Re: My little cat was struck by a car last night, I'm pretty pissed of

My nephew's cat enclosure (shared by two cats and one chihuahua)

My planned cat enclosure isn't as grand as my nephew's.

 

[Captain_Nick]

Re: My little cat was struck by a car last night, I'm pretty pissed of

Thank you all for your well wishes

I saw Little Tiprat last night - as soon as he heard my voice approaching he perked up. I put my hand into the cage to pet him and he grabbed hold and wouldn't let go for half an hour.

They reckon that he was struck on the head so aside from some fractured nose bones and a killer headache, he's basically ok. No internal injuries, thank god! With luck I will be able to take him home in the next couple of days.

I got a good nights sleep last night and am feeling much better. No more thoughts of murderous revenge Have to admit I am really surprised just how hard I took it on Weds night. I guess it's easy to dismiss feelings as illusions when you're not experiencing them - its a bit harder when things turn against you.

 

[Finn]

Re: My little cat was struck by a car last night, I'm pretty pissed of

Miss Chicken, that looks like something one would see at a petting zoo.

Awesome

 

[Kitty Worrier]

Re: My little cat was struck by a car last night, I'm pretty pissed of

I saw Little Tiprat last night - as soon as he heard my voice approaching he perked up. I put my hand into the cage to pet him and he grabbed hold and wouldn't let go for half an hour.

Awwwww..... that's sweet.

 

[RJDiogenes]

Re: My little cat was struck by a car last night, I'm pretty pissed of

When I went to pick up my cat after he got hit by a car, he leaped up on my shoulder and wrapped around my neck and stayed there the whole drive home, purring like crazy the whole time. Then when I got him home, he went back and forth to everybody's lap over and over, like he wanted to sit with everyone at once.

 

[Kemaiku]

Re: My little cat was struck by a car last night, I'm pretty pissed of

I saw Little Tiprat last night - as soon as he heard my voice approaching he perked up. I put my hand into the cage to pet him and he grabbed hold and wouldn't let go for half an hour.

Aww sounds like he'll be sore for a while but glad he's ok.

 

[Marie1]

Re: My little cat was struck by a car last night, I'm pretty pissed of

When I went to pick up my cat after he got hit by a car, he leaped up on my shoulder and wrapped around my neck and stayed there the whole drive home, purring like crazy the whole time. Then when I got him home, he went back and forth to everybody's lap over and over, like he wanted to sit with everyone at once.

LOL yeah! Mine goes into his carrier by himself to go home!

I put my cat on a leash when there are animals around that could harm him, the trouble is punks on bikes squealing around just to terrify him so he'll try and slip out of his harness and tear off. Jerks.