Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Not Sophie


Have I stooped to new lows? I went back up, waited for a break in traffic in the dark. Then, flashlight in hand, ran out and grabbed the flattened gory roadkill, using a plastic bag for a glove. And ran back to my car, the flattened carcass hanging and flapping as I ran. I took it to the far side of my car, where I took a close look.

There was very little left recognizable. But I don't think it was Sophie. It was a white cat all right, nice clean ears, like a house cat would have, too. There was one ear only intact. The rest was flattened dirty gore. But it was a cat and it was mostly if not all white.

Whether it was Sophie, I don't think it was, because there was white hair on that one ear. I know that means almost nothing. I didn't even check to see if the hair was attached, or slid onto the ear from somewhere else. There was nothing left on the spinal column, but the bloody stick of the column. No tail to check for color. The one paw with four perfect pink paw pads, untouched by wear, like a house cats' are, had white hair on it. Nice clean thin claws, not overgrown, not yellow and thick, extended in death.

Christiana from Safehaven saw the body too and said she for some reason didn't think it was the lost Siamese. Quite a coincidence, however, being that close the rest area.

But maybe not. The black adult I trapped there was a female. I believe the gray tux kitten is hers. ODOT crews found another kitten a month ago, starving, and about a month old. And all white. The dead cat could be the male, Mr. Impregnator.

There's a source of cats on Talbot road or near the Devor Connor exit. Somebody has unfixed cats spilling over. I know it. Makes me angry sometimes.

Today six cats were fixed including the black female from the rest area. I took in five more from the 13th street house in Albany, too. The vet told me they found a bb inside the uterus of the female from 13th street. The clinic showed me the BB. When I told the owner about this, he said "I have a BB gun. I shoot at raccoons." I said "You're not a very good shot. You shot your own cat. I suggest you dump that gun in the trash."

3 comments:

  1. OMG how awful! This made me cry Jody. What a horrible death but her life was probably worse. I'm so sorry. k

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  2. That was a good suggestion you made to him about the gun, Jodi. And in any case, raccoons too would suffer with bb wounds.

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  3. Yes, it's disgusting. Raccoons are less likely injured by BB's but sure can be. They have far denser fur, usually denser fat layers and thicker skin than a female house cat.

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