Trigger warning- dead animal
Update: we have found Mimi's owner. He contacted me via pm. He was sad but said he knew something was wrong when Mimi didn't come back home for his dinner Sunday night. He has been leaving his kitchen window open ever since, hoping against all hopes that she'll come back.
It sucks to be the bearer of bad news :(
@mods, happy to have this thread closed. There's nothing more to add :(
My flatmate found a dead cat in our driveway this morning.He thought that I might have accidentally run over the animal last night when I came home. He moved the corpse, bowels and all, into a box and then called me. He said that it was a horrific scene and didn't want me to see it.
The thing is, I know that I didn't hit that cat. I am a careful driver. I also would have seen the animal or felt it going under my tyre. At the very least, there should have been a miaow, a thud, something. There wasn't. Last night was no different to the 100 of times I've driven up that driveway.
We checked the car, the tyres… and we could not find any blood nor any animal matter - nothing to indicate that I have hit a 6-7 kg tabby cat. My flatmate says that it was easy for him to move the tabby. It wasn't splattered on the driveway . He said he easily picked it up with his hands. There was also no blood on the driveway but then it has been raining heavily since early this morning, so that could explain why there was no blood on the driveway but not why there is no blood on my vehicle which was garaged overnight.
I feel sick to my stomach thinking about that poor animal and it's owner, who is somewhere awaiting its return. I have a cat and a dog, and I know how devastated I would be if one of them went missing and we never found out what happened to them. My flatmate and I went door-knocking trying to find the owner in vain. However the neighbour across the road said that he saw someone kneeling outside on my driveway, like he was doing his shoelaces, early this morning. He said the man was carrying a Rivers bag. He described that man as slight, effeminate and wearing a hoodie. That was the first thing he said to me when he saw me, even before I asked them if they knew anyone whose tabby cat has gone missing. This neighbour is in his early 70s and suffers from dementia. His son says that he often confuses tv shows with reality.
I don't really know what to think or do. Is it possible to hit a cat and not know about it nor have any evidence of it on your car? How do I find the owner/s of the cat? On top of door-knocking , we've also driven around the local area looking for any missing cat poster that bore some resemblance to 'our' cat. We found one but when we contacted the owner,she said her cat had returned home a couple of days ago. So we still don't know who our mystery cat belongs to.
He was completely soaked, on top of being disembowelled, and we couldn't keep it in our garage for too long. It also felt disrespectful to keep it in that state in a box outside, so we have buried it in our back garden.
JJB
Probably not. Most likely someone hit the cat on the road and then moved it to your driveway thinking it was yours (they probably hit it near your house). If you'd hit the cat and it lived it would've sprinted away, if you'd run over the cat you would see evidence on your car/driveway. You also likely would've heard yowling when you got out of your car.
I'd say someone hit the cat and it either hobbled to your driveway to die, or someone moved the poor dead kitty off the road out of respect / not wanting to squish it further and left it on your driveway.
You can take the body to the vet for a microchip scan. The vet will then dispose of the body and contact the owner. Depends if you want to dig the cat up again or not.
Otherwise a letterbox drop and a sign on a telegraph pole or two is really all you can do.
Poor kitty. Unfortunately cats have shocking road sense. Unless you're on a property I always think it's kinder (to the kitty and to the wildlife outside) to keep them indoors.