Baloo,
I already apologized to zut, as well as stop arguing with Herr Kaltfeuer…
Psssst, Farris? In here, please :rolleyes:
Moderator’s Notes: I guess I waited a bit too long before stepping in here. Farris, please do not post personal insults in MPSIMS; they are totally inappropiate for this forum. And Coldfire, you should know better than to have continued when this became heated. Both of you knock it off.
I’m sorry, but this just isn’t true. We try to keep personal attacks restricted to the pit, but profanity is everywhere, even in Cecil’s columns. Hell, I know that I’m one of the most profane people on this board and I also know where I post.
Anyway, I see that you’ve done the proper thing now Coldfire by starting a pit thread. Both of you please confine your personal quibbling to that thread. If I see anymore of it in here, I’m gonna delete it.
[Edited by UncleBeer on 07-26-2000 at 07:05 AM]
Point taken, Unc. It won’t happen again. Mind you, it WAS fighting ignorance, as far as I’m concerned 
Well, as usual if I don’t post a response in the first 8 hours to an OP, or before the thread becomes the subject of a massive hijack, I’m sure no one will read this at all.
I love cats. I’ve always loved cats. I’ve got 4 of the monsters right now in fact: fat, fat, grossly fat, and normal-sized. I’ve found injured cats on the road, taken them to the vets, paid for their bills, only to have the owner pick the pet up without a thanks, let alone compensation for the $400 I spent on their cat. But I would do it again, just because I can’t see cats hurt.
So knowing that about me, one day when I was in college I was driving home from work (delivering pizzas) at about 1:00 a.m. Our house was out in the country a few miles from the city line. While I was going along, very tired, all of a sudden a cat darts out from the grass on the side of the road, and the car goes right over it with a “bump”. I just stopped and stared ahead - just in a state of shock.
I finally got the courage to put on the hazard light (not really required since there was no one within miles) and see what I did.
The poor cat was a farm cat, a yellow tabby. It was still in the road, completely disembowelled and crushed - and it was still alive, breathing weakly. There was no chance of it living.
Then something strange happened to me - I just became completely numb, like I was outside my own body. I knelt down by the cat and tried to pet it, and talk to it, but it seemed not to be completely aware. I petted it a few more times and smoothed it’s fur, then walked back to my car, got my handgun from under the drivers seat, and shot it. All this time it was like I was watching someone else do it, I was very calm.
I gathered the poor cat up in an old rug I had in the trunk, continued home, and buried it at 2:00 in the morning. And then I went to bed. Sometime the next day, I snapped out of the haze I was in, and was so sick I didn’t get out of bed for two days, just crying and sniffling whenever I was alone. I hate myself for killing that poor kitty. I hate myself now just remembering it.
Like I said - it’s a shame that no one will read this since this topic went so far out of control. It took a lot for me to put this down in writing. Now I’m very sad again. 
Well, if it’s any consolation, I read what you said. And I think I understand what you’re talking about: a feeling of unreality, resulting from the knowledge that something bad happened (even though accidental), and nothing else you can do will undo the damage.
Why must kitties die so horribly?
I keep my cats in the house always. Some people say it’s cruel. But I can’t bear letting them out to get hurt. They have everything they need in my house - warmth, love, toys, attention, and big windows to sit in.
Come to think of it - they have everything I need too. 
Anthracite, I know exactly what you felt like. My dog Ursula was hit by a neighbor’s car in the parking lot to my apartment. I picked her up and put her in my car (she bit me, but I didn’t notice because by that time I was in THAT state). I drove to the vet, blowing through red lights - thank god there was little traffic. After the vet took care of her (he did put her down eventually), he said, “You’re bleeding…a lot.” I went to the hospital to find out that the nerve to my right index finger was severed. All the time I was thinking “Why am I not upset? What’s wrong with me?” I was an automaton, driving about and making decisions without any qualms. About 6 hours after this began, a nurse asked me what happened. I started to cry and I don’t think I stopped for several weeks. It took me months to get my head right, to feel happy with life. Thanks for posting - I’m sure it was not easy to do.
I think what you and zut did was courageous. It’s too easy to think that the injured animal will die soon and then be out of its misery and thus do nothing. But we don’t know when death will come and in the meantime, the animal suffers. And zut, like dragonlady, I also noticed what you did for your wife. You are a prince.