Quote (Terps @ 16 Mar 2019 06:22)
Just ran over a cat. It leapt from the bushes beside the road right as I passed by, so there was nothing I could do to stop in time.
I reasoned that the poor animal was mortally wounded, since I was going ~50. Given this, I figured it would be better to make its death less slow and agonizing, so I ran over it again, like 3 times, to ensure a quicker death. I figured that would be better than writhing on the muddy shoulder for several hours, possibly until next morning.
I hope it died quickly, although it seemed to be writhing even after I ran over it. Similarly, my last cat did the same writhing motion after being put down (.22 in the head), so I think it was just unconscious, lifeless death throes. At least I hope that was the case. Seems impossible that it was conscious enough or physically able to willingly move the way it was.
I hope it was a stray. There's quite a few of them around here, since there's woods and open fields to hunt. But there's also homes around, so it might have been someone's cat, unfortunately.
Roughly 300ft up the same street, I ran over what I think was a cat about a year ago. Might have been a fox or small raccoon though. I had good luck with not killing anything for like the first 10 years of driving. Then in the span of ~3 years I likely killed two cats and a woodchuck.
Sucks. I felt guilty having my own cat comfort me when I got home.
Prolly should have tried to take it to a vet
Or at least remove the lifeless corpse in case it did belong to someone to remove the chance they go looking for it and end up finding your handiwork 😕
Awful situation to be confronted with for anyone with empathy, especially a cat owner, condolences