[Closed] I'm a bad cat murdering man #drivingthread#

Ffs you hit someone's pet of course you should stop. Can't understand why you didn't slow down when you first saw the poor thing.

I can't believe you just m(e)owed it down!

It sounds more like a pheasant than a cat from the behaviour.
It's a shame but these things happen. No need to beat your self up about it but it is puurfectly normal to feel guilt.

I'd not have stopped either if I knew it was a cat. A cat [could it drive] not only wouldn't have stopped it would have swerved to make sure it hit it and then reversed over it a few times.

Once you’ve flattened it they go through the letter box.

Paws for thought.
I would stop to make sure moggy was actually dead, not suffering.

If you didn't stop, how do you know it was dead and not just really badly injured?

If you didn’t stop, how do you know it was dead and not just really badly injured?

True it could have been catatonic.

Those who would have stopped, would you have stopped for a pigeon, a rabbit, a rat?

Hhmmm. Yeah. I’d find it difficult to reconcile that particular set of actions.

Shock can cause us to make atypical snap decisions.

But you are right to feel bad. I’d be ashamed.

Oh well, at least it wasn’t a child that you hit and ran?

Dude I is disappoint in my beer brewing buddy.

You should have stopped man!!

This is a bad cat - sure you measure up ?

Does my moral compass need a reset?

Needs a lot more than that.

I hit a pup once that bolted from a garden right out in front of me. It got a hefty skelp, let out a sickening yelp and it ran away into the woods. Spent about 8 hours looking for it with no joy. Felt terrible but nothing I could have done to avoid it. Poor thing likely curled up and died somewhere in agony.

A cat though? Meh.

Very similar experience here a few years back. Cat ran across, stopped, I slowed, then sped up again thinking it was safe, and the little bugger ran right under the wheels.

I did stop and check, and it was definitely an ex-cat. There was brains and stuff 🤮 I'd have needed a shovel. No houses nearby to knock on, so I drove on. Felt guilty, but shit happens.

In all seriousness, if you run over a cat or dog, yes, the circumstances might easily have been out of your control.

At least try to own the situation: take the remains to the police or a vet so that the chip can be scanned and the owner informed. It might be an unloved stray or somebody’s heart could be breaking for months and years.

At least try to own the situation: take the remains to the police or a vet so that the chip can be scanned and the owner informed. It might be an unloved stray or somebody’s heart could be breaking for months and years.

This. Take it to a vet. Give it some respect.

: take the remains to the police

I'm sure they'll be thrilled with that. Better scrape up the pheasants and badgers while you're at it and drop a whole sack off.

I've said this before on here but our local town facebook page has about 10k members. If a kid is run down it's all "Youth of today and bloody kids running out in front of cars, hope the driver is OK." If a cat gets hit all the worlds rage is channelled into finding the driver and having them ended. It's actually a bit scary. It happens often because cats like to get run over.

Honestly, if I ran over a cat I'd keep driving all the way to Mexico. I can't deal with having a hundred mad cat ladies after me. I'd never get served in the local shops or anything.

I've wondered myself what I'd do if I ran over a cat and it was a dead bloody mess. You can't just go randomly knocking on doors holding up a bloody corpse, the nearest vet is a few miles away (and not open if on my morning commute) and I'm not sure I'd want it in my car anyway. Probably even worse if it's still alive, I'd knock on a few houses then but if it's 6:30am that's not going to go down well so am I supposed to just ditch work and try and it keep it alive until the vet opens (I don't know cat CPR)? Who then pays the vet bill if it can't be traced?

I think I'd have stopped to check if it was alive (then vets if so) Tbh, but in my limited experience they are either dead in the road or prove difficult to find with injuries.

A few years ago at an old address, a woman knocked on our door to tell me she had hit a cat on the road. I told her that we didn't have a cat, and from her vague description I didn't know who's cat it might have been. She got really put out, wanted me to take responsibility for finding the owner and telling them what had happened. There was no body, cat had run off. She pointed out that she had told me what had happened, the cat's owner would want to know and I should do it as "I lived there". When I declined and suggested that it was more her responsibility if a search was going to be launched, she thought I was a cat-hating monster and gave me the full high-horse treatment while I stood baffled in my own doorway.

They sleep 22 hours a day. It’s only two more hours.

It might be an unloved stray or somebody’s heart could be breaking for months and years.

Exactly. Clearly some cat haters on here but if you own an animal and it goes missing it i a horrible experience. Not great to hear that it got run over but at least you know and are not left wondering where it is, it if is injured slowly dying for a few days etc,.

At least you've provided some moronic entertainment to a few here so not a total loss eh? Yes you should have stopped and put it on the side of the road. It's not nice for the owners to find a treasured pet spread over a square metre of tarmac.

I’ll probably be labelled a cat hating serial killer for this....and yes we have a cat.

If you own a cat and let it roam free, then expect it not to come home at some point and don’t get on your high horse with the person who runs it over.

If you love it so much, lock it in the house and make it a house cat.

The argument that cats like to roam free and shit where ever they please does not pass the responsibility of cat ownership onto other people. Its your pet.

Have a big thumbs up UncleFred.

Agree with UncleFred.
I remember yonks ago, driving into Portsmouth and someone had run over a cat approaching the old Rudmore Roundabout (OP will know where I mean). He got out of his car to do something with the cat, but had run over it's head and it was still moving and twitching. Poor bloke couldn't touch it and stood there looking shocked. You wouldn't want that eh STM?!

If you own a child and let it roam free, then expect it not to come home at some point and don’t get on your high horse with the person who runs it over.

If you love it so much, lock it in the house and make it a house child.

The argument that children like to roam free does not pass the responsibility of child ownership onto other people. Its your child.

Doesn't sound quite so good does it....

OK so you're putting a child and a cat on equal terms? Also you can at least try and teach a child about road safety, cats just won't listen...

Christ some of you have some really weird thoughts about cats. Yes you should have absolutely stopped and checked if it was alive or not, and then taken it to the nearest vet. YOU ran it over, it shouldn't be up to anyone else to clean up your mess.

And for everyone blaming cats for getting run over, what the hell is wrong with you? Take some responsibility.

If you own a child and let it roam free, then expect it not to come home at some point and don’t get on your high horse with the person who runs it over.
If you love it so much, lock it in the house and make it a house child.
The argument that children like to roam free does not pass the responsibility of child ownership onto other people. Its your child.
Doesn’t sound quite so good does it…

You're one of those "Furbaby" people aren't you? Children are not cats. Cats are not children.

My friend's child fell off a roof recently and was badly injured. The doctor said his quality of life wouldn't be great and the best course of action was to put him down. I think it was the right thing to do.

Changing words in sentences is fun.

Changing words in sentences is fun.

Changing underwear in Tesco is kinky

I’ll probably be labelled a cat hating serial killer for this….and yes we have a cat.

If you own a cat and let it roam free, then expect it not to come home at some point and don’t get on your high horse with the person who runs it over.

If you love it so much, lock it in the house and make it a house cat.

The argument that cats like to roam free and shit where ever they please does not pass the responsibility of cat ownership onto other people. Its your pet.

Cats would be considered vermin if they weren't so pretty, and I own one! (by proxy, couldn't say no to wife). Am already considering giving neighbours a gift of a supersoaker to keep the little fleabag away from their bird table.

I also agree with Uncle Fred, let your animal run free, reap the consequences. I sometimes wonder how the cat crowd would feel if all dog owners started giving their dogs the run of the neighbourhood...

Back on topic though, I guess I would have crawled past the cat in question rather than accelerating back up to squashing speed, but agree with OP that the prospect of getting drawn into some expensive melodrama because somebody else's pet ran under your wheels would be a bit off-putting...

I’ve said this before on here but our local town facebook page has about 10k members. If a kid is run down it’s all “Youth of today and bloody kids running out in front of cars, hope the driver is OK.” If a cat gets hit all the worlds rage is channelled into finding the driver and having them ended. It’s actually a bit scary. It happens often because cats like to get run over.

Very much this. I reckon missing / hit cat posts is 50% off our local Facebook group's content. I remember that someone saw a cat get hit at 11 pm at night on 60mph A road and they rallied round to get the pitchforks out and track down the driver that didn't stop! Who the hell would stop in the dark at that time.

Doesn’t sound quite so good does it….

Mad Cat People are strange
Besides, if you are going down that route I hope you stop for every squirrel/badger/pheasant/rat/ fly/God's creature that you hit!

Besides, if you are going down that route I hope you stop for every squirrel/badger/pheasant/rat/ fly/God’s creature that you hit!

I'd stop for a horse....or a moose

If you've ever travelled to Africa you'll know that you can substitute the word "cat" with the word "human" throughout this thread. Driving through Lagos it's really upsetting when you see people squashed flat or spread all over the highway and you wonder whether they have children who will be sitting at home that night wondering why Mummy or Daddy is late, then never knowing what happened to them. Kinda puts dead moggies into perspective.

No excuse not to stop. Regardless of the law or the fact that cats are daft it deserves you to care about it enough to at least check that it is in fact dead or that your intervention could not save it or prevent it unnecessary suffering. Add the human connection and that it is someone's pet and imo that adds an another level of thoughtfulness required on your part - at the very least to place it at the side of the road so the 'owners' (not sure you ever own a cat - at one level they own you, at another they are a loved member of the family unit not a possession - going over the moors in the highlands at 4.30am currently is a deer/car interface waiting to happen) don't have to scrape body parts off the road after it dies and gets run over further even if you havn't got the cojones to find and inform the owners.

And yes I would and have done similar for wild animals - it's not their fault I'm flying about in a metal box that they can't comprehend the movements of. I'm not going to stop using my metal box (actually I do try to avoid using it around dawn in rural areas if possible) but it's right and proper to mitigate the damage done to some extent.

So in summary for me at least your moral compass needs a smart tap to check it's not got stuck with self orientated or lethargy crud.

Changing words in sentences is fun

Apologies in advance to parents. Sorry
Driving home from work doing probably 25mph round a fairly tight corner on BH monday afternoon and a child bolts across the road.
Silly thing stops approx 1 foot from the hedge on the other side of the road and sits down and looks at me driving in its direction.
As I am about 2mtr away it darts back across whence it came. Hit brakes hard but there was the unfortunate bumpity bump as the kid took a hit.

Then he drives away while an Audi tries to flash him down. And keeps going. You really are a thick idiot if you think that's even remotely similar or likely!!

Besides, if you are going down that route I hope you stop for every squirrel/badger/pheasant/rat/ fly/God’s creature that you hit!

I don't know many people with pet squirrels and flies so see those as wild animals with no owner/anyone that cares for and looks after them.

Killing somebodies pet and leaving it to die slowly on the roadside is simply not the same.

leaving it to die slowly

I've told you a million times etc

see those as wild animals with no owner/anyone that cares for and looks after them.

Killing somebodies pet and leaving it to die slowly on the roadside is simply not the same.

So there's no value in a wild cat then?

On the flip side I'd be much more bothered if I hit a wild rabbit than a pet cat. It's a wild animal with zero appreciation or protection from the impacts of a society from which it gains nothing. A pet can be kept home, could be trained and benefits daily from the cosy world it lives in.

As for cleaning it up the foxes, sea gulls and crows will be along soon enough to do that.

convert

Subscriber
No excuse not to stop

I ran over a ginger moggy that chose to run the wrong way, from the way the wheels bumped and the amount of times it bounced of the underside of the van I guessed it wasn't well.
3:30am going through a village and it was very foggy so I couldn't even reference where on the road I'd hit it. I'm not knocking on random doors at that time of the morning, the people who didn't own the cat would've had a pop at me, and the cat owners (if I'd found them) probably would've as well.

So yeah, I think that I had a reasonable excuse not to stop. I'm also a cat owner and would be gutted if she didn't come home, although she did go missing for a week and came home with a broken jaw. It is a risk you take when you let your pets roam free like a wild animal.

In the 70s, when dogs could also roam free, our dog was run over and left to die slowly by the roadside. He was a 13 year old mongrel and had lived a full life of Leigh Park scrapping. The driver did phone the number on the tag and told us, but they didn't wait around, we forgave the cowardly scum bag.

Hit brakes hard but there was the unfortunate bumpity bump as the kitty took a hit.

so I gather it'd be a bit of a hike for you, but if you fancy driving up and down our road a few times, we've a couple at least in their late teens who've well outstayed their welcome.

(Though unfortunately they don't much like going outside the garden these days, and tend to focus their shitting and pissing to in and around the broad vicinity of the litter trays.)

So there’s no value in a wild cat then?

Dead? Some nutritional value for the magpies, I suppose.
Let's face it, nobody is going to be happy about their cat being dead whether you turn up at their door with the evidence or not. If it is injured then you can at least present them with the opportunity to spend a couple of grand down the vets. And maybe a bill for having your tracking checked. If I remember correctly cats have no status in law, whereas dogs at least did when there were licences for the little shite machines.

If it had a collar I'd try and make contact with the owner otherwise I'd just move it to the side of the road. Realistically what else could you do?