Killed my neighbours cat!

paulsad

You've done the right thing - when I was young I lived on a main road, on entering the driveway one night I spotted something in my way - I stopped the car to find a dead cat that belonged to people over the road, poor thing had been hit by a car and crawled onto our drive to die. I told the neighbours and guess what? They never spoke to me again coming to the conclusion I had run it over being a "reckless" teenager...

rinabean

I don't think you did anything wrong, OP. But do you know that their cat really wasn't missing? I'm sure everyone knows of the kind of cats who go away for a few nights at a time sometimes, so you don't realise when they're really missing until they've been gone quite a while. Perhaps that's what happened here? Basically, I don't think you should assume the cat was in such a sorry state because of its owners unless there's something here I've not read properly.

Gingham_R

rinabean wrote: »

I don't think you did anything wrong, OP. But do you know that their cat really wasn't missing? I'm sure everyone knows of the kind of cats who go away for a few nights at a time sometimes, so you don't realise when they're really missing until they've been gone quite a while. Perhaps that's what happened here? Basically, I don't think you should assume the cat was in such a sorry state because of its owners unless there's something here I've not read properly.

I had a feral cat that used to spend most of her time outside. But I checked on her, made sure she was coming in for food by sometimes turning the cat flap to 'in only', made sure she had flee drops and even got a worming tablet down her now and again.

Even so, this wasn't a hardened outdoor cat. It was a 6 month old, blind, diabetic kitten.

Vet said it was about 6 months old, probably diabetic (which was the cause of the walking problems), blind, severely malnourished, covered in flee faeces and had eye infections. She said she had discussed it with the Cats Poctection people (who were paying for the treatment) and they felt the kindest thing would be to put it down, which they did.

This was an unchipped 6 month old kitten. I'm guessing she wasn't a rescue kitten because she'd have been chipped by most rescue centres, so this kitten had been the neighbours' responsibility long enough for her to have got into this state under their care.

If I was looking after a blind, diabetic kitten with problems walking, I don't think I'd have let it go out, never mind with no chip and name tag. I bet it wasn't neutered either.

Deeperblue

rinabean wrote: »

I don't think you did anything wrong, OP. But do you know that their cat really wasn't missing? I'm sure everyone knows of the kind of cats who go away for a few nights at a time sometimes, so you don't realise when they're really missing until they've been gone quite a while. Perhaps that's what happened here? Basically, I don't think you should assume the cat was in such a sorry state because of its owners unless there's something here I've not read properly.

Your right, I don't know how long it had been missing and maybe it was just a coincidence that it got put down the day they sent flyers around about it. I've never had a cat so really don't know anything about looking after them, but I'm sure it would have taken more than a few days for it to get into such a state that putting it down was the only option? How long would it take flees to cover a cat in poo like this one was?

rising_from_the_ashes

IMHO it's not the fleas that are the main issue - any animal (even the best looked after) can get these and they quickly lay eggs / flea dirt and make a mess of the animals skin/fur.

However, for a cat to be practically unable to walk and badly malnourished etc, it does take a while - and would certainly not happen in just a couple of days (if the poster just went up, it implies that the cat has recently gone missing as most owners will put these up fairly quickly - when my cat went missing, I had posters up within 24 hours!).

I would say this is backed up by the fact that the veterinary nurses were so affected - although they (like most people) hate to see any animal in distress, they will have built up self-defence mechanisms to cope with dealing with very sick animals so the fact that they were in tears at the state of the cat says a lot (again IMHO).

Please don't feel guilty - you did the right thing for the poor wee mite.

vicx

What an awful situation for all invovled.

I've just been watching the local news tonight and seen this about a family cat that was put to sleep. A very similar story, is it the same cat?

http://www.itv.com/tynetees/cat-death-controversy42427/

Jon_C

Clearly not the same cat (six-month-old kitten, not a 25-year-old cat).

And I know this is off-topic but if the owner of the 25-year-old cat in the video clip really did care so much about him, he would have had an ID collar and/or microchip (it wasn't mentioned in the video clip and I think the owner would have mentioned it if that was the case)... and it might have been better to keep him as an indoor cat for his golden years too.

Maybe it's because my cats' vets are so caring and really do go the extra mile but I am inclined to believe the vets in the OP's case and the case shown in the ITV video clip just posted: I do not think they would take the decision to euthanise unless they felt that the animal was suffering.

My two cats are indoor cats because they have various medical conditions that swayed the decision for me. As a happy medium I had an enclosure built for them with shelves, boxes etc so that they have a bit more freedom. I know that not every cat is happy indoors and not every owner believes in keeping a cat indoors because at heart they are wild creatures with a great sense of freedom. However, I believe that when special care is required (as in the case of the diabetic six-month-old kitten), that special care should extend to making sure that the cat is kept indoors.

I think the OP should not feel guilty about the cat's death. The decision was taken based on professional opinion. The only people who should feel guilty are the owners, although to give them the benefit of the doubt I would say that it is possible that their cat escaped, got lost and deteriorated very quickly without insulin or other medication.

It might not be as clear-cut a case of neglect as one might assume - the only thing they might be guilty of is a mistake that almost every owner of an indoor cat has probably made at some point or other... leaving a door or window open.

Regardless, the owners should be told what happened. The best way to do it is ask the vets or RSPCA to tell them, leaving your name out of it of course.

MissGolightly

Misstress wrote: »

You did what was right for the cat, BUT please don't give cats cows milk it is very bad for them. ( sorry if you were referring to cat milk)

You failed to quote the part where OP says it had an egg cup full of milk, and also failed to say, it can be very bad for them. Not all cats are lactose intolerant, my older boy isn't, and little girl is too young to know for sure if she will develop an intolerance in time, there is nothing wrong with giving a cat a little bit of creamy milk as a treat if they're not lactose intolerant, and an egg cup full isn't going to cause much if any harm.

Poor form to criticise OP when she is obviously going through a tough time.

Fishingtime

If the vets and the CPl said the best thing to do is to put the cat to sleep,Then I would stop worrying about it as obviously it was the most humane thing to do.