The Cat Dead on the Road Was Homeless and so are His Owners

My friend had told me another cat had been hit on Circle. So I went, to park near a homeless camp. I'd seen a cat there who might be still alive.

I had just arrived and out of the woods came R. I said "Remember me?"

"You're the cat woman," he said. I've been hoping to get in touch with you. We got about a dozen back there need live trapped, but you got to bring them back after their surgeries. They're our pets."

He used to live beside Safeway, before all that development. I trapped, fixed and relocated about three dozen cats in that area. He fed them when he could. I ran into him there. He had to move after development hit.

I said, "Do you know that cat who got hit on the road there?" He immediately became upset when I told him it was black and white. "That's her favorite," he said. He was referring to his girlfriend. I pulled out my binoculars, and handed them to him so he could have a look. The cat was dead near a sign across the road.

He tried to focus my binoculars to both of his eyes. I said "They only work in one side, the right side. So close your left eye to use them."

He could see the cat better then and got all upset all over again. He started to cross the busy road. I said, "Here, take these plastic bags." He took them.

Once over on the other side, I watched as he knelt to look at the cat. Then he plopped on the curb with his head in his hands. I went on over and tried to comfort him.

"She's going to have a fit when she sees him," he said.

"Want me to take him then and bury him?" I offered. R nodded.

So I put him in the small plastic bag. He didn't fit. His head had been smashed by a car. His eyeball was hanging out.

Back across the road, I laid him in a towel I had and put him in the back of my car.

I asked R if they needed some cat food and he said "yes". I gave him all I had. He took off, but not before he asked when I would be back to trap the cats for fixing. I said "Monday". He said ok, and that he would be there, because he'd need to be there, so "she won't go off on you". I am slightly concerned about that. His girlfriend likes to go off on people, even though she knows I won't hurt those cats and will bring them back if I say I will.

But she might see it as an excuse, so I'm slightly concerned but I'll risk it. AS long as R is there. Otherwise their cats will draw attention to themselves and to the camp there, when they multiply this spring. And the males will keep getting hit on the road, as they roam, looking to fight and find more females.

So I buried that black and white male. Poor guy. Never had much of a chance.