Sad note in my apartment complex - animal lover warning!

[PepperElf]

I saw the notes next to the mailboxes had changed today and stopped to read them.



There ... was a kitten running around the apartment complex the past week. It was cute and so young that it didn't understand why it should be wary of dogs.

"Was" is the operative word. All I'll say is that the apt manager said she cried a lot yesterday and that one of the maintenance men buried the baby cat out back behind the tool shed.

The following is the first part of the note. Blanked out cos it's sad.
[blank]This morning 12/12/12, I witnessed a small gray & white kitten take its last breath after it had been hit by a vehicle in <complex> Parking lot. Whoever ran over the kitten did not stop.[/blank]


Yes there is a posted speed limit - 15mph - and yes, the notices always include that cos people keep going over. Or not stopping at the stop sign too.

She said the property owner has speed bumps on back-order but after yesterday (both of them love animals) he might try to get them in sooner.

I liked that kitty too. It was sweet.

[LillFilly]

People like that are sociopaths. How did they know that wasn't someone's pet? At the very least, they should have stopped to make sure it wasn't suffering, or try to get it help; not like they were going 80+ on the highway. As a responsible HUMAN BEING they should have stopped at the very least. Hopefully, they can ID the car as someone who lives there, or someone will brag about it, and maybe get some sort of animal negligence charge slapped on them.

[Slayer]

I'm sad that no one took responsibility for the kitty the entire week; poor thing. No owner at all?

The driver might not have stopped because they didn't see/feel anything. It was small. You see a lot of roadkill for that very reason. The reverse could also be true in that the driver did notice and didn't care. Or thought it was a squirrel or something. I guess the manager would have the answer to that.

Hopefully, they can ID the car as someone who lives there, or someone will brag about it, and maybe get some sort of animal negligence charge slapped on them.

I know around here, there's no crime in not stopping (though if it was me and I noticed, I'd have stopped). And it doesn't sound like the driver aimed specifically for the animal. If there was an owner, the owner would be at as much fault as the driver.

Just a really bad situation all around

[PepperElf]

I'm sad that no one took responsibility for the kitty the entire week; poor thing. No owner at all?

I don't think so. I picked it up to try to find out where it lived but had to put it back down. Couldn't take it in myself cos... Miss Dog has a strong "prey drive". Likely if it hadn't been hit it would have become another stray cat resident. The apartment manager & one resident both feed a couple of the wild cats & even set up little plastic boxes for them to sleep in.

But yeah, drivers don't always pay attention here. Sometimes they don't even bother stopping at the stop sign. When my BF and I walk the dog at night we bring a BRIGHT flashlight - partially so we can see the ground (and avoid stepping in dog poop), and partially so that we can alert drivers.

They especially speed on the 'straight-aways'. hopefully the speed bumps will curb that when we finally get them.

[Ophbalance]

I've been thinking of posting this for a bit, but hadn't made time for it.

My eldest has scouts two nights a month. A few weeks back, as I was on my way back, I had stopped at T intersection. The rode I was turning on to runs out of the local small town near to where I live, I was in what is basically a small sub-division of said town. The speed limit is 35 MPH along this stretch, and the length of that road is maybe 150 feet from the small town. Unless you're heavy into the throttle, you really shouldn't be moving all that fast at the point where I'm at.

As I approach the stop sign I see a black blob on the outskirts of the nearest street light. I'm thinking to myself "is that a trash bag... cloths... what?". I shortly noticed that there were head lights approaching, but kept my eye on the blob.

The van passed me as I sat, hitting the blob. It never slowed, never flashed its brake lights, just went along as if nothing happened. I followed it about a quarter mile down the road, whereupon it turned into a private drive. I turned around and went back to the intersection, where I found a very small, very black and very injured palmarnian. I picked the poor thing up and loaded it into my van. Oh, and this was a day where I forgot my phone at home (it's only a few miles from my house).

I took it home with the intent of going to an emergency vet, but my wife noticed a collar hidden amongst all the hair. Luckily we found a number and was able to re-unite the dog and owner. I've not had a chance to follow up, but it probably didn't turn out well. The dog never moved that I saw, and was not really even whimpering after 15 minutes or so.

No one, be it human or pet, should be confined to a death alone due to carelessness.

[shopgirl15]

Wait, so did a dog kill it or did it get run over?

[shopgirl15]

I've been thinking of posting this for a bit, but hadn't made time for it.

So...you left the dog at the intersection to follow the van? And then didn't take it to an emergency animal hospital?

[Ophbalance]

It was another car that struck the dog.

So...you left the dog at the intersection to follow the van? And then didn't take it to an emergency animal hospital?

I wasn't sure what it was until I went back. Arc Sodium lights play hell on my eyesight. The owner of the dog ultimately decided to take it to her daughter, who's a vet tech. Though to be honest, there probably wasn't a chance it was going to last out the hour.

[PepperElf]

update: good and bad news.

Bad news is the kitten is still dead.
the good news is that it's NOT the kitten I thought it was.

I verified with the apt manager - the other cat was powder grey. the kitten i saw is completely different and still quite alive. it belongs to someone in the back and manages to escape sometimes.

[wolfie]

IYes there is a posted speed limit - 15mph - and yes, the notices always include that cos people keep going over. Or not stopping at the stop sign too.

She said the property owner has speed bumps on back-order but after yesterday (both of them love animals) he might try to get them in sooner.

There are good speed bumps and bad speed bumps. The conventional (roughly a foot wide and 3-4 inches high) are obnoxious - they annoy people travelling at low speed (even at a crawl, I sometimes scrape bottom on them), and are a challenge to high-speed "yahoos" who want to "catch air". The best ones are paired "speed humps" - less abrupt, so a car going slowly will merely have a wavy path. On the other hand, a car going fast will compress its suspension on the first one - and then hit the second when there's no more travel left to absorb the unevenness, so the occupants get a literal "kick in the pants".

[PepperElf]

i think they're getting the temporary ones so i don't know which it'll be. but the apt manager and i agree - no one really reads those notes.


oh update on the other kitten, the one i keep seeing. picked it up yesterday while walking the dog. i gave the dog to my BF cos doggy wanted to "play" with it. knocked on the door where i thought the owners lived and yep they were missing the cat.

apt manager says they claim it gets out and they "can't catch it". i personally think they're not trying very hard cos i've caught it twice now pretty easily. but anyway hopefully i scared them cos i said, i wanted to be sure they had it cos "my dog wants to play with it".

anyway hope they keep better care of it cos ... our speeders might end up killing that one too

[Cooper]

When I was driving home from school I saw a dog get hit by a car. I had been trying to catch it, because it was dark, it was a dark dog (I wouldn't have seen it myself if it weren't for its eyes), and it was clearly terrified. I couldn't catch it, even after it was limping.

Thankfully the guy who hit him did stop to help me catch the dog. The dog ended up just having a broken leg, and is fine now.

Poor kitten.

[Lace Neil Singer]

Aww... so sad.

I posted about this last year, I think; someone unknown dumped kittens outside my door once. I heard them meowing and put down some milk for them, then went to ring the Cats Protection League, who collected them. I could hardly believe that the erstwhile owner of these kittens could have been so cruel; they were, by the looks of them, very very young and probably not even weaned. Plus my old flat was near a busy main road.

[Sapphire Silk]

I lost my Stumps to a speeder in the neighborhood almost two years ago Luckily, a neighbor saw him in the road and I came and got him just as he was passing, and was able to give him a good burial in the backyard.

Speeders still drive too fast in my neighborhood, so Taz is not allowed outside. Stumps is the third cat I've lost over a lifetime to cars, I can't bear to lose another that way. Fortunately, Taz doesn't try to escape and seems quite content to be an indoor kitty (except when the wild bunnies are in the yard).

I'm going to have to look into speed bumps for my neighborhood. I'm really sick of the dangerous driving that some of my neighbors do.

I've hit squirrels before; sometimes the little guys zig when they should zag and run right under my car. I've felt it every time So I don't understand how someone could hit a kitten and not feel it.

I did hit a dog once: a black lab at night on a poorly lit street when I was trying to deliver a pizza. I stopped, the dog was still alive. While I was there, the owner came by. I helped him load the dog into his car to take to the vet; I actually think the dog did OK because he was moving about and whimpering, assuming the owner could afford the vet care.

[PepperElf]

we still have speeders. no speed bumps yet though.

we were walking the dog a couple of nights ago when a truck came speeding down the straight-away and only slowed when it rounded the curve... and saw us walking there.

I looked directly at the driver. so yeah he knows he was going too fast.