NOT THE DAY PLANNED

So...I was at the farm yesterday and taking a break on the porch.  It had rained (imagine that!) and I had just unloaded some stuff from the car and was sitting on the rocker when 2nd Family's dog Blue came up to visit.  

He roamed around a bit and then wandered off into the yard as he often does.  I saw something out of the corner of my eye and noticed a pretty white and gray cat running across the driveway.  Within seconds, Blue was chasing and I saw the cat jump up onto the garden fence.  My immediate thought was 'OK, it will be safe up there', but Blue jumped up and grabbed the cat by it's back end.  In just a second, he pulled it off the fence and was shaking the cat back and forth in his mouth.  It was horrible to watch and took a couple of seconds for my mind to process what was happening. 

I screamed and ran toward them as he kept shaking and shaking it back and forth.  I twisted my ankle as I ran through the mud.  Suddenly he let go and he ran down the driveway and the cat ran into the brush around our tree.  I looked all around and couldn't find it, hoping that it got away.

About 20 minutes later though, I heard loud meowing.  I went over to the tree and the cat had come out of her hiding place and was laying on her side, dying, breathing her last breaths.  I knelt down and started petting her gently and telling her in a soothing voice that she was a good kitty as I began crying over a cat I didn't know.

She died within a couple of minutes.

I stood there stunned by the whole cycle of events.  I cried a little more (I'm like that when it comes to animals) and realized I can't leave this cat like this out in the open and I surely can't just toss it into the brush.  This is a stray that lived somewhere on the property but it still needed respect.  I went to the barn and got the shovel and found a high, slightly drier spot in the mini forest area and dug a hole.  I got some plastic and picked up the cat, put her into a curled up sleeping position and wrapped her up.  I placed her in the hole and filled it with potting soil we had and topped it off with the clay soil to kind of seal it up.   

I placed a rock on top so we'll remember she's there until I can figure out something more permanent...and cried a bit more.

Needless to say, that put a damper on the day and with impending rain, and everything else checked, I decided to come home.  2nd Man didn't come as planned because he needed to do some last minute work from home.  I'm grateful he didn't have to witness that.  This wasn't the day I had planned...

Image courtesy of gardeners.com

RIP kitty

I'll update the other moments of the day later.