Yesterday was a sad day

J called as I was heading to the airport to come home from my scrapbooking weekend to tell me that our cat Sassy was no longer with us. As he told the story he sounded like he had been crying, and the more he said the more I wanted to cry.

J let our dog Maddie out yesterday morning, and while she was doing her business he stepped into the bathroom in our laundry room to use the restroom. When we let Maddie out, Sassy LOVES to sneek out and roll on the concrete. That's all she does is roll on the concrete. She never wanders off or anything, but lately we've tried to discourage her from sneeking out the back door because she doesn't have front claws and we didn't want her to get out without us knowing and have something happen to her. She's rather stealthy so it's been difficult to keep her in when we let Maddie out. Normally we go out with Maddie and we're standing by the door to leep Sassy in, but occasionally we'll finish what we're doing and just glance over every now and again to see that Sassy is still inside.

So, yesterday morning J was in his boxers and didn't want to go out in them so he stayed inside. He could see the back door from the bathroom, and he was watching for Sassy and listening for her tags. Maddie let herself in and J closed the door not knowing Sassy was outside. He went to feed Maddie and then he got in the shower. An hour later J went to leave from church, and he backed out of the driveway. As he was backing out he hit a "bump". He immediately got out to see what it was and found Sassy laying on the driveway twitching. He sat down beside her and started petting her and talking to her to calm her down. He said her eyes were huge probably because she was scared. It only took her about 30 seconds to die. J guessed that her spinal chord was broken because it was quick. The only thing we can figure is Sassy tried to get back in, but since J had closed the door behind him she couldn't get in. She spooks easily, so we're guessing that something spooked her and she ran under J's car for shelter.

When she died, he went inside to change so he could bury her. Being the engineer that he is, he checked online to see the proper way to bury a pet so that it was environmentally safe. Once he found the best way to do it he dug a hole behind our bush at the end of our driveway, and buried Sassy there. He said it was very hard to bury her because he had taken her in several years ago and saved her from being on the streets and now he was having to deal with being the one that killed her. I wish I would have been there with him.

Please say a prayer for J. He's blaming himself for what was an accident. He knows it was an accident and there was nothing he could have done, but he's still taking it hard. I called him when I landed in Houston to see how he was doing, and he started crying. He said that he was upset for a couple of reasons. 1) he was mad that he wasn't standing at the door like he normally does, 2) he killed his own cat and then had to bury her, and 3) he had to go to our friend's little boy's birthday party by himself on Saturday, and he said he was reminded MANY times of what we don't have.

Life sure is weird without Sassy. She always greeted us in the morning with a chorus of meows, and she followed J everywhere like a shadow. Sassy was a sweet little kitty, and when J found her and took her in 6 years ago, she was fully house-trained. She was so smart, and she loved to be in the bathroom with us. That was "her" time. We sure will miss her!!