A Sad Story

WARNING - This is a very sad story. That is my disclaimer.

This sad story occurred about two weeks ago. It began as a normal Saturday. My first activity of the morning was my walk with our dogs, Tucker and Nellie. We started out on our usual route through our rural neighborhood. Our walks are always peppered with wildlife sightings. On any given day we will see rabbits, bald eagles, racoon, deer, all kinds of birds, the occasional coyote and feral cats. As we headed up a long hill, a rabbit or cat would flit across the road ahead of us. I had my head down slightly as we marched up the hill. It was then that I heard the "clink." Not the type of sound I usually heard on our walks. I looked up to see its origin. What I saw made my stomach turn. The image looked like a grotesque, almost cartoon-like, feline astronaut. It was a feral cat with a glass mayonnaise jar on it's head.

I groaned out loud. The dogs looked from me to the cat in alarm. They had never seen such an unusual sight. The cat was shaking it's head to rid itself of the filthy jar. It couldn't see or hear us. I tied the dogs to a nearby mailbox post thinking, "I can fix this." Very quietly I positioned myself behind the cat. I reached down and grabbed it by the scruff of the neck. I gripped the jar and began to slowly pull. Nothing happened. I pulled with a little more force and still it didn't budge. Then I heard a deep, ominous, rumbling growl. Clearly, the cat was beginning to tired of me pulling on that jar. Quick as lightning, it reached a hind foot up and sank one of its claws into my thumb. I let it go and it ran into a cement culvert. I kneeled down on the road next to the culvert to see if it would emerge from the other end. The jar clinked against the cement sides as it made its way down toward the other opening. I leaned over the culvert opening and saw the jar peeking out. I reached down to grab it again, but it was too slick and the cat pulled it back into the cave-like pipe. The dogs and I waited some more but the cat stayed put.

My next idea was to return home and get the van, equipped with our cat carrier, and leather gloves to protect my hands. I would come back, catch the cat, stuff it into the carrier and take it to our local veterinarian for the jar removal. I untied the dogs and we raced home. I relayed what was going on to my husband, Paul, grabbed my cat catching gear and raced back out. I parked the van close to where I last saw the cat and began my search. The first place I looked, of course, was the culvert but it was empty. I search the ditches on either side of the road, still no cat. After a while, I realized the futility of my mission. The cat could have been anywhere. I returned home with the empty carrier. Paul and I looked several more times that weekend but the result was the same - no cat.

I thought about that cat the whole weekend and for days after. I had come so close to saving it, but in the end I couldn't. Its ultimate fate is just too hard to think about. I'm trying to focus on any positive thing that can come from this incident. I suppose I can look at it as another reminder that we are stewards for all of the creatures and plants on this earth. We should be mindful of the impact of our actions. And realize how something as seemingly innocuous as improperly disposing of a simple jar can cause great harm.