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Terrible accident. I wish I made better choice


Abdul Rahman

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Dear Friends,

I had a sad situation this morning which I can't seem to forget or forgive myself. I thought to share it here for lesson learned.

I was driving to work this morning (I an an expatriate living in United Arab Emirates), I noticed a cat sitting in the street divider, I noticed her as she (assuming female cat) looked exactly like our cat, brown long hair cat, she was sitting quietly, it was a busy street so I took a U turn to take a close look at the cat, she was still sitting there, I parked my car and crossed the street, my guess was correct, she was a house cat, maybe lost or abandoned, she was injured, I could noticed a bit of blood on her mouth, I grabbed her in order to rescue and take her to vet, unfortunately she escaped but still within the street divider area.

I thought that I needed a pet cage to carry her, so drove back home (only a traffic light away) to get one of our cat's cages. 

I returned to the spot in about 15 minutes, luckily the cat was still there, I put the cage down and started to call her, suddenly she ran towards the busy street, there was a fence between the street and the street divider (municipality puts it to prevent people from crossing street from unauthorized areas) but the cat slipped under it and ran to the busy street,  I was shocked, couple of cars stopped, I couldn't run after her due to the fence which I couldn't jump over, sadly a fast car came and hit the cat, I ran towards the end of the fence to cross the street and by the time I could reach her she was already laying on the street, I stopped the cars and grabbed her, put her inside the cage, she was still moving slightly, I ran towards my car on the other side of the street, checked on her again but she was already gone.

I can't believe this happened, I keep blaming myself for all this, maybe I shouldn't have got involved, perhaps I should have called a specialized animal rescue who could have handle a case like this better than I did, maybe i scared her off! maybe and maybe...

I cried while driving to work, the day has been terrible and couldn't do any work, I have been thinking of that cat all day, and until now, recalling her body laying on the street, what an awful feeling. 

I wish I have made better choices today. I hope I'd forget myself one day. RIP lonely cat.

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I am so sorry. Terrible things happen. It was clearly an accident. You were trying your best to rescue the cat but the circumstances of the situation prevented that rescue. The traffic, the divider fence. A frightened cat. Everything was beyond your control. Please, forgive yourself. You did nothing wrong. You were trying your best to do the right thing but the situation was not meant to be. My heart goes out to you.

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I am so sorry for the outcome, that had to be very hard to experience.  You were only trying to help, and truth be known, the outcome might have been the same regardless of your involvement or not.  Cats and busy streets do not mix.  I don't know that a rescue would do anything different than you did, it's hard to predict a frightened animal.

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i'm so sorry to hear your story, but, please don't blame yourself. i volunteer with a shelter & 2 animal rescues, & there are many sad stories to hear. what you did was exactly the best thing to do, try to help an animal in need. it sounds like it was just awful luck that took that cat's life, again, i commend you for your action. the world needs more people who want to help animals and take actions to do so. my aunt always says - man plans, god/the universe(in my book)laughs. please keep trying to help them, and thank you so much for making the effort you did. most people would not. @KayC i would venture to say in my experience it is nearly impossible to predict what a frightened animal might do. animal rescue people strongly advise against allowing cats outside, unless using a harness &  leash or in an enclosure. aka 'catio' :)

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Abdul,

I worked for my local humane society, and closely with animal control for about five years.  I can tell you right now you did nothing wrong.  Calling animal control or the humane society is definitely an option that people could use in the same situation, but it is not a guarantee.  While you are doing that, the injured cat could get spooked by a near by car and dart in to the road anyway.  It takes time to look up your local animal control agencies number, place the call, for them to respond, all of it.  Animal services are usually understaffed to begin with, I know in our county we had 5 field technicians to cover a 507 square mile area with over 1 million people on a 24 hour basis.

That means that even had you immediately called the agency, and they immediately dispatched a field representative, and assuming they weren't already responding to another similar call, they would probably be in the area of 20 miles away.  Minimum 20 minutes not including traffic, stop signs, etc.  From experience, if the cat had blood coming from the mouth, and it was in the median of a busy street, it had probably already been struck and had internal injuries.  It is fairly likely that nothing you could have done would have saved the cat, and indeed that the animals end, while tragic, reduced the amount of pain and suffering it would have gone through.

We can all only work with the situation we are presented with, and do the best we can to get through it.  You did that, and tried to help an injured animal.  Regardless of the outcome you are a terrific person, who did everything they could to help.

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iwouldhireme

Please, please, please don't blame yourself!!! If I had a cat in a similar situation and I knew a good Samaritan such as yourself tried to save her, I'd be thankful that you took the time and effort to do so! You did nothing wrong, and you did what many others would not even care enough to do. You are awesome!! Don't blame yourself for this unfortunate situation.

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