A Sad Day Here.....

Silvia the Cat is gone.....I hope she's found her brothers and sisters in kitty heaven.

As you know Silvia 'belonged' to the guy across the street. The house that had the fire last May. Steve once lived there and Jill once lived there. Wanda and I assumed responsibility for all. Over the years we have taken in a lot of cats. After today, we're done. We have Steve, Casper, and Dakota. Sparky Lee has lived, and stays, in the backyard. She always has, she won't come in. Now, that's it, we're finished, never ever, ever, ever again!

Our cats do not, under any circumstances, go outside. They never have, never will. As much as we tried to keep her in, Silvia was a pain in the ass. When she wanted out, she wanted out. She would walk across this keyboard. She would rub her mouth on the corner of the screen. She'd make little annoying howl noises, "I want out, I want out, I want out." That's what she did this morning.

I opened the front door and thought, it's cold, you won't like it. She took a few steps down the walk, tuned around, looked at me, and sat down on the cement. I was going to go outside and pick her up, but I didn't. I heard a ruckus at the front door about an hour later. 

When she wants in she'll throw herself against the steel screen door. I always hear it. When I opened the door this morning, two dogs had a hold of her, two large dogs. Two dogs who, it turns out, live a block away. Two dogs it turns out, killed Silvia. Oh, they didn't actually kill her, they just bit her enough to cause more damage then could be fixed. I chased off the dogs, I had to throw rocks at them.

Silvia was hiding under bushes that have been here thirty years. I couldn't see her. I called the vet, I called animal control. The animal control officer was here. He saw the dogs running around. He talked to the owner of the dogs. He gave the dog owner a ticket or whatever it is they do.

After a short time I heard her meow, I coaxed her out. I'm a nurse, I knew what I saw was bad. I put her in a crate, took her to our wonderful vet and had her put down. The doc said she had too many wounds to reasonably assume she would recover. 

Wanda and I don't want anything more than the dogs kept in their yard. No financial restitution is necessary, not that we'd get it anyway. Nothing is going to bring that sweet cat back.

Our hearts are breaking over this. It was so avoidable.