vr_trakowski (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
vr_trakowski) wrote2009-09-14 01:31 pm
vr_trakowski) wrote2009-09-14 01:31 pm
Alas
Last night was such nice weather that I left my bedroom window open. At about 11:30, I looked out to see a couple of kittens--five weeks, six?--cleaning up the leftovers from the ferals' supper. I gathered up a couple of cans of cat food and went out. There were at least five, and when they saw me they bolted into the bushes, but I put the food down anyway. Judging from at least one of them, they're Cocoa's litter; I knew she'd given birth and was nursing, but not where her nest was.
At about four this morning, I heard barking outside my window. There are few dogs in my apartment complex--I'm not sure they're legal--and the couple I've seen were the little fluffy kind. This was a German shepherd and something not much smaller.
I whistled at them and they left off and trotted away. But below my window I could see a little body in the grass.
They came back about half an hour later, and I went out with a broom to tell them to go home. They jingled when they left; they were wearing collars and tags.
I took an old shirt and a plastic bag out when I left for work this morning, and gathered the little one up; the grass is long and I couldn't be sure Maintenance would see it. There were no visible wounds, but it was soggy; shaken to death.
I can't blame the dogs. They were just being doggy. I do blame whoever let them run free, and not just for the kitten, because I live right on a major road. They could very easily be hit by someone not expecting a four-legged pedestrian, and the consequences could be disastrous for both the dogs and the driver. I should know; I've done it, not half a mile away from where I live now.
Poor kitten. You had so little time, and your life probably wasn't going to have been much worth living; but you deserved the chance at it.
At about four this morning, I heard barking outside my window. There are few dogs in my apartment complex--I'm not sure they're legal--and the couple I've seen were the little fluffy kind. This was a German shepherd and something not much smaller.
I whistled at them and they left off and trotted away. But below my window I could see a little body in the grass.
They came back about half an hour later, and I went out with a broom to tell them to go home. They jingled when they left; they were wearing collars and tags.
I took an old shirt and a plastic bag out when I left for work this morning, and gathered the little one up; the grass is long and I couldn't be sure Maintenance would see it. There were no visible wounds, but it was soggy; shaken to death.
I can't blame the dogs. They were just being doggy. I do blame whoever let them run free, and not just for the kitten, because I live right on a major road. They could very easily be hit by someone not expecting a four-legged pedestrian, and the consequences could be disastrous for both the dogs and the driver. I should know; I've done it, not half a mile away from where I live now.
Poor kitten. You had so little time, and your life probably wasn't going to have been much worth living; but you deserved the chance at it.