Poor little guy

Last night was stressful and sad. I was in the computer room when I heard Lori calling for me, that Luka was being attacked by an animal in the hedge in the backyard. I went out and saw both dogs freaking out and going after something. I pulled both dogs away and sent them in the house. I got the broom and brushed at the animal. It was black and white and I was thinking it could be a skunk or a badger. It smelled like death. I brought it forward a little more, it was hissing and freaking out. It was a little black and white cat.

He had hardly any energy to hold his head up. His eyes were puffy. He did not look too good. I was pretty sure he was on his last leg. Emotions were pretty high. I went in and called a few numbers and no one was open, so I called the non-emergency fire department line. They said they'd send somebody out.

I set out a bowl of milk and food and continued to make dinner. There wasn't much else we could do. We kept checking on him and he just layed there, head down, barely breathing. The animals were extremely curious as well.

A person from animal control came out and got the cat put in a crate and into her truck. I asked her what she thought might have happened. Her guess was it was a feral cat that got into it with a raccoon. And had probably been suffering for quite a while. The bad odor was possibly the onset of distemper. As I was talking to her we noticed that the cat had stopped breathing. It had finally gave in.

I like to think that the cat dragged itself to our house because it knew that someone here would help it. I also would like to think that we gave it a little love in its final moments and it got to leave this world with a little dignity. I wish we could have done more.