Thread: Sad today

I'm feeling really sad today. My 3 little dogs killed a stray kitten yesterday. I didn't see it happen, but my partner did, and told me all about it when I got home. I feel so bad for her, she's been feeding these kittens and giving them names. She told the dogs to go in the bushes after the kitten thinking they would just chase it out like they do with our cats in the house. She had no idea. I just wish I'd been there, I wouldn't have let them go in there.

I know that dogs are hunters by nature, but I have always thought of them as my sweet innocent little babies. That poor kitten never had a chance. My dogs have never seen a kitten before, they probably thought it was a rat.

Anyway, I just feel sad. Sad for the kitten, sad for my partner who was just trying to help the little thing, and sad for all of us, like we've lost a little bit of innocence. Sorry, that sounds pretty sappy.

Magoo -

Sorry to hear it - none of us like to senseless loss. Like you, I am an animal lover so I can appreciate your sadness.

If there is any good news, it's that you and your partner now have a fresh recollection that even your dogs respond to their instincts and that you need to watch them closely in new situations.

You seem like a good soul and no doubt your partner is as well - try to cheer up.

Magoo,

I am so sorry to hear what happened. You are right. We get so close to our little pets that we think of them as our children. I know that I tend to love animals more than I love people sometimes. So when they do something wrong, it hurts us tremendously. We tend to forget that they are animals after all.

If you haven't already, maybe you can have a little memorial or something for the kitten. It may help you and your partner with the grieving process.

As far as your "babies" are concerned, you kind of have to forgive them. Its who they are. I'm no vet, but maybe you can find some ways of (safely) "introducing" them to kittens so that they become familiar with them and hopefully this wont happen again. Like find a way of letting them get familiar with their scent.

Take care of yourself,
Cyra

I'm sorry you're hurting, and I hope you feel better soon. I know that this sounds really insipid, but then words of consolation always do.

We have a dog that kills smalls for a hobby. He's actually my brother's dog, and unfortunately he's taken out several of our cats, one of them my beautiful old guy Aristotle.

My Significant was very angry about the accident, and has subsequently decided to hate the dog. I have to tell him that he can't blame the dog, who was only doing what dogs do. I've gotten to where I can still love Micah (the dog) but be on guard at all times. We don't let him ever be alone with smalls of any kind.

I guess it's just another step on the road to Learning Forgiveness, hmm? Maybe we have to learn forgiveness in relatively small things so that when the bigger ones come along we'll have practice.

Just my over-inflated .02...

Thanks for the support guys, I am feeling much better. I will be much more careful from now on, but unfortunately I won't always be able to know ahead of time if there is something hiding in the bushes. It's very sad that some people do not take care of their cats, and let them roam around the neighborhood getting pregnant over and over. If people would just get their animals fixed!

ArcangelDurango you are a better person than I. If my brother's dog killed any of my animals, I would never want to look at it again. I'm just grateful that the kitten that my dog killed was not someone's pet, I would feel forever guilty, even though it's still nobody's fault.

Like Bob Barker says, have your pet spayed or neutered everyone!