I almost hit a cat the other day running across the road in the dark!
It makes zero sense to let your cat roam free. I bet the owner of this cat will assume it just ran away or is was taken in by one of the neighbors and never know what really happened.
One thing I have to politely sort of not totally agree on is the getting out of the car part. When something darts across the street in front of you and then you hit it what else is there to do? Call an ambulance? What did you wind up doing?

I move the animals to the side of the road for a couple of reasons. One, the next driver may cause an accident trying to avoid hitting the animal if they don't know if it's alive. We have a lot of winding roads, and you can come up on something in the road very quickly. Two, even if it's dead, I hate to see animals repeatedly smushed. Not all animals are strays or neglected, some are escapees from the house or yard. I would be absolutely devestated to come across my beloved pet completely smushed from being run over repeatedly. At least the owner (if there is one) will know that someone stopped to make sure the pet was gone and had enough respect to move it. Three, not all animals die. If I hit one that lived, I'd take it to the vet unless it looked like it was going to die very soon. I know many area vets who wouldn't charge for a humane euthanasia or bill a good samaratin. And finally, I'd make sure a dog or cat didn't have any identification. If it did, I'd contact the owner to let them know what happened.

cat6dog1horses2, please post some signs in your neighborhood to have the owner of the cat call you. She may have escaped from the house through no fault of the owner and they could be looking for her. Not knowing is so horrible. You could also let them know that she died relatively quickly and you were there with her. That may comfort them in their grief. Thank you so much for showing the respect for her to stop and give her a proper sending off.

Those of us who chose to let our cats outdoors do so with the understanding of what "might" happen.

I have buried one that was hit. She had been rained on and was teeming with maggots when we buried her. It SUCKED, but she'd been outdoors before we took her in (she'd been abandonned at the end of the summer).

I hit a cat in the early '80s. I stopped and the woman was furious with me, but I couldn't stop in time (50 mph zone). Her husband was wonderful, thanked me and told me to go on my way, as such things sometimes happen. I felt terrible.

How about we skip the lectures on "responsible" pet ownership? not everyone who hits an animal while driving is callous. And not all of us who've hit an animal think the owners are negligent.

Great idea to put up signs in the neighborhood. It may just help someone who may be missing their cat.

JMO but I don't think I'd put up signs. What would the sign say. Found a cat. Sorry it's dead.? If you just say found cat, that might seem sort of cruel, when the owner found out it was dead. I'd keep my eyes out for lost cat fliers or lost ads in the paper. Then I would contact the person so she could have some closure.

Very sad story . You did the right thing. I witnessed a cat getting hit and then hit again as I stood helplessly by and watched and listened to the thumps. It was a busy street and we had just left the bakery. I was waving my arms and people didn't see the cat, just this crazy person. This is one reason why not for anything in the world would I let my cats outside.

You know sometimes if an animal is laying dead in the road, other animals come to eat the remains and sometimes they are hit too.
I guess removing the animal would be a good idea if it can be done without getting run over yourself. I'm just not sure what I would d if the cat wasn't dead but was unable to move. I guess then it's time to call animal control?

Quirky, it would just depend on the situation. The OP knew the cat wasn't going to make it and chose to be with it till it died, then buried it.
I once came across an injured cat in the middle of a country road. There was a hysterical guy pacing around flapping his arms, holding his head etc. I stopped. The poor man was in tears, saying he didn't hit it but he didn't know what to do, that it was just in the middle of the road and he didn't want to leave it. He kept saying his room mate wouldn't allow another cat, and he didn't have money for vet bill. I tried to calm him and told him it would be alright and that I would take the cat to a vet. He thanked me over and over again and left. I picked up the cat and took it to my vet which was right on the way. I knew it wasn't going to make it and that was the vets opinion too. He euthanized him for just a small amount since he knew me and it wasn't my cat.
Now, if I would have been on my way to work instead of on my way home, I don't know that I would have stopped.

If you hit an animal and it keeps running, it would be almost impossible to catch it. Maybe that's why the driver kept going.

The sign could say "I have important information on a cat with this description.... Please call (999)999-9999." The owners will probably know what it means.

Yea, you're right Meghan. I just couldn't think of a way it could be worded, Other than Found Cat, or Found Dead Cat and neither seemed appropriate.

I found a neighbor's cat in the road right next to their house, which was a corner house on a fairly busy street. I stopped to take it out of the road, thinking it was dead, and discovered it was still alive. I took it to their house, only to discover they were out and a babysitter was there. She didn't want anything to do with it, so I told her to have them call me when they got home, and I took the cat home with me. I called a vet, but he said he wouldn't treat the cat without the owner's permission. I told him I couldn't get ahold of the owners, but he refused to treat the cat. This was a long time ago, and for some reason I don't remember, I either didn't know about emergency vets or something, I decided to just put the cat in a box in a room by iteself, to reduce the stress and fear it might have from being around someone it didn't know. The cat passed away shortly. If the same thing happened now, I would have taken it to the emergency clinic. At least I got it off the street so it could die in peace.

One can't always avoid hitting animals, it happens. I have hit birds before, but luckily, no dogs or cats. I once, recently, nearly hit a group of 3 people! There were two people walking, one of which was pushing a man in wheelchair. It was night, and they were walking down the street, next to the curb. I was just edging closer to the curb to make a right turn ( the street is a wide lane street where people will pass others making turns, and pulling over makes it a bit safer, usually), when I saw these people right in front of me. Luckily, I had time to swerve and brake to avoid them, but they were basically invisible in the dark. Yes, I had my headlights on, but for some reason these people were just hard to see. They were wearing dark clothing, and I also just wasn't expecting them to be there. There are sidewalks along the street they could have used. Whew! I know that's not about hitting animals, but you just can't be too careful, and sometimes it just can't be helped.

Sally

I'm glad you were able to avoid that accident. I can imagine how scary that was.
As for the cat you helped. I don't have money to burn. I would have done what you did. The vet probably would not have been able to help it and at an emergency vet you could have been out a lot of money.
Did the owners ever contact you to thank you or anything?

Here's my story of hitting an animal. I was on my way to work, just before daylight. I hit a young raccoon. I know I killed it instantly. I wasn't in a position to stop anyway. So I drive on in to work crying my eyes out. Sad part was, I couldn't get one ounce of sympathy from my co-workers. They just teased me all day. Ya see, at that time I was working with a bunch of avid coon hunters.:-)

I was on the other end of the situation. Our first puppy got out of our front door and ran towards a person who was coming cross from the beach with a surfboard. Our puppy used to watch her "daddy" come home from the same beach and I think she thought it was him. She ran right out in front of a big truck on the busy highway and got hit. I saw her tumble as she was thrown. I nearly got hit myself trying to get her body off the road. My neighbor had to pull me off to the side with my holding her in my arms. So from the owner's standpoint, pets do slip away sometimes and I would be grateful if someone took the time to stop and see about the animal. The truck that hit Whimper probably never felt it as she was so small and it was going so fast. My only console was that she died instantly and didn't suffer. But to this day I can see it happening so clearly when someone mentions an animal being hit.

Oh, how awful and sad. Sometimes things just happen so quickly, you just can't avoid them. I saw an episode of Emergency Vets once where someone was taking their dog home after being treated for something, or getting shots, I don't remember what the dog was in for, but in any case, he escaped from the owner, ran out into the street, and got hit. The good news was that he was hit in front of the Veterinarian hospital, and one of the better ones in the nation. (I'm assuming, it sure seems like a very good animan hospital.)

To answer your questin, Beeanne, yes, the owners did contact me, and were grateful, sad, but grateful.

Sally

I too will remove dead animals from the roads. For two reasons: it seems so disrespecful to leave a previously-living creature on a roadway where he will be repeatedly run over and also because decomposing living flesh is good for the ecosystem. Also, because I don't want to see the poor animal each time I drive by. Being struck by a car is a sad way to die.

Just a week or two ago I hit a cat in the road. He saw me and hesitated - I put on the brakes but he continued forward and I hit him. I saw him continue across the road and I turned around to see if I could find him but I did not see him. Maybe he just had a broken limb and will recover. Plus, if you try to handle an injured cat (or dog) you'll need some protection because cats in particular will fight - bite and scratch. I would still try though.

vicky

I think putting up a few simple signs here and there is a lovely idea. No matter what the circumstances were of why the cat was outside (perhaps something the owner did not condone or participate in), if it were my cat that disappeared, I would be so grateful for even bad news.

It happened to me going on 40 years ago with my first cat. I lived in an upstairs apartment, and apparently the cat leaped out an open window and shinnied down a pine tree. I was in despair, and posted "Lost Cat" notices throughout the neighborhood. A few days later, a nice older lady made her way up the overgrown driveway to my house (the neighborhood "hippie house", by the way), and told me that she had found my cat in her yard, looking as if she had been savaged by dogs, and had taken her to a local shelter. When I called the shelter the next morning, they told me that my cat had been in terrible shape and that they had had to put her down.

It was all a terrible experience - except for that wonderful woman taking the time to go out of her way to be the bearer of such bad news, to find my house, to bring me some peace of mind. I still think of her with gratitude all these years later. And I learned some big-time life lessons from her, too.

I'd just put up a sign or two saying, "Did you lose a (color/sex/breed) cat? Please call (number)."

Susan