[plumseverywhere]

Our lovely 13 year old cat, Tomsk, has just been run over and killed outside our house and in front of my 4 children who watched the whole horrible incident unfold. Had the first car to clip him stopped, there is a chance that the few after that continued to hit him wouldn't have been able to - he might have survived 

He is the 3rd of our cats to be run over. I have one cat left. Up till now I've taken a deep breath and thought that lightening really couldn't keep hitting us - the road isn't a massive duel carriageway or anything but the car users do tend to drive too fast.

My options now with Snowball - a)try and make her into an indoors cat - this is a cat who loves to hunt and is only 2 yrs old and has only ever known being free to go out
b) rehome her somewhere quieter where she is most likely to survive longer than here (this will be further heartbreak for my children)
c) hope that she's sensible on the road.

Really don't know what to do.  My heart is saying we should let her go somewhere safer 

[lachlanandmarcus]

Im so sorry that is so horrible....

I would be seeing if Snowball can adapt. many cats can and do, esp as they get older.

If that doesnt work then rehoming might have to be an option but I think the chances are quite good. And experts say that cats can adapt very well in most cases.

[Daisys Mum]

That is so sad I know just how you feel as my young yard cat was killed outside my house on Monday morning, whoever killed him didn't bother to stop but just left him lying by the pavement where all the children walk to school.
This is also our 3rd cat that we have lost on this road even though it is a village where no one should be speeding, my other yard cat Maisie is quite lost without him.
It would be very hard to get Snowball to adapt I would think as you have young children, getting children to remember to keep the doors shut is so hard especially as the weather gets better.

[Roxy]

So sorry, how dreadful, and especially so with the children being there.

Our farm is on a supposedly single track road, which is a rat run.  I have had cats killed here, so it happens on any road.  My mum rehomed two of her cats here at the farm, but they were female and stayed put. Both adjusted and lived to a ripe old age.

I would look at it from the childrens point of view - its not nice if it happens again to your remaining cat, whether they see it happen or not.  It may be upsetting for them to rehome the cat, but obviously preferable to not having it at all.

Probably the cat would prefer to stay where it is, and may well survive.  Alfie was here 14 years, and crossed the lane regularly, although she sensibly walked along the stone walls to get from A to B.  Yet her brother was killed within a few months of me getting him.

[plumseverywhere]

Such a quandry  Tomsky who died today, along with his brother Toby who died about 6 months ago were both getting on a little in years. Prior to them being run over, I had noticed a change in their personalities - they both suddenly became more homely, more affectionate, wanting to sleep on our beds and not going out as much. I do wonder if their age had something to do with them being less road savvy? 
The children are aged 5, 7, 9 and 10 - all girls, all love their cats. They are almost 'used to' seeing the farm animals die off and in their short lives we've had 2 goats, 2 lambs and 3 cats die in very sad circumstances (unexpectedly/road deaths or in the goats cases quite young and suddenly). I think though the cat today will have hit them hardest (ouch, didn't intend that pun    )  as they spent all of their relaxation time snuggled up with a purring Tomsk or Snowball.
I am starting to find myself thinking that we should keep Snowball, I agree that letting her go would be wrong for the children's wellbeing. I will keep her shut in at night though with a litter tray so I am at least trying to reduce the risk. I don't think she would adapt to being in all the time and there is no way on earth I'd manage to keep windows and doors shut with my brood - and if Snowball was kept in, the chance to be gone with an open window might mean she is reluctant to come back knowing she is to be shut up again 
Thanks for listening everyone - horrible day, have taken Tomsky to the vets to be cremated as the fox dug Tomsk's brother up before and that was doubly awful. I hate this road so much!!!

[in the hills]

So sorry 

We live on a one track lane where you can walk for an hour and not see a car and yet my  friends cat was run over last year and killed and another one of her cats dreadfully hurt on the road the year before so nowhere is completely safe. Both accidents happened at night.

We guess that maybe they get dazzled by the lights and being so quiet up here maybe they dont have much road sense.

Try keeping in at night if you dont want to part with her ( it might be hard for your children to accept). My cat was used to partly surviving herself up here and was gone I am told for weeks on end. When we took her on we wanted her in at night and she has adapted to this really well and it is now her routine.

Hope your children are okay .... poor things.

[deepinthewoods]

sorry to here about your cat plums, my house is next to a fast road and i dread finding one of my cats flattened, so far weve been lucky but they do like to cross over to the fields opposite, even tho theres 100acres of woodland nest to the house for them to play in, maybe try to encourage it to stay in a bit more, at least it will reduce the chances.

[plumseverywhere]

I remember as a child having acres (not ours, someone elses!) next to our house and still our cats would roam in the opposite direction...One cat was killed on a main road a good 15 minutes walk away    That dread you mention Deepinthewoods is what I've felt since the first one was killed, morbid this will sound but as I open the curtains each morning I check the road to see if my cats have survived another night.
Am going to keep Snowball in at night, Husband has bought nice food for her to tempt her not to wander and we will pamper her and never again will I moan if she knocks my stuff off the shelves in her quest to climb the walls or when she badgers me for toast/marmite as I'm trying to eat my brekkie!

[Roxy]

As I am out quite early travelling from one field to another - I have noticed that if you are going to see a dead cat in the road, its early morning.  I think they tend to cross the road at night when its quiet, and then when coming home, hit a bit of traffic, and thats when they are likely to be hit.  I think keeping the cat in at night, may be worth trying.

Quite often cats dart into the road, and if they kept going they would be ok ...but they see a car, and run back.

The near misses we have had with cats doing this.  I was convinced we had killed a ginger cat one morning, and made hubby stop......seems cat ran behind the front wheels, and by a whisker got out before the back wheels got him ....phew!!

[jaykay]

I'm so sorry 

I think you just have to hope that Snowball has survival instincts because it's highly unlikely she'd adapt to never going out.

I have two young cats who are house cats - they never did go out, as they were still too young, when the last of the outside cats was killed on the road - so i decided that then. They are fine, because they don't know any different but there's no way any of my already-going-out cats would have put up with it - they dived between your legs to be out of the door and as someone else said, with young kids around, it would be far too stressful trying to keep her in during the day.

Mum and Dad call their cats in to be fed at night and then shut in – I do think that's worth trying.

[plumseverywhere]

She is SO staying in at night!! Doesn't help that she's a black cat (hence the name Snowball) and I worry that being black, she's more likely to get run over? we've had 2 black ones run over at night, today was a ginger one in daylight 
Roxy, your observations are useful. Not that I am overthinking it all or being morbid, but I feel it helps to make sense of what's happened and try to gain understanding of normal cat behaviour and how we can control that in terms of their safety.
I never want to hear my children screaming as they were this morning as it all unfolded.
I do have to say though, as you mostly know I moved my girls from one school to a new one. Today has really proved that we made the right move. I phoned the head to say our cat had been killed in front of the children, that they were still comign to school but I wanted to let them know so they were forewarned if the children became upset.
Anyway....All of the teachers gave the girls hugs, the head herself came out to the playground and led my 7 year old in by the hand very gently, a prayer was read out in assembly for "anyone who had lost an animal...rainbow bridge etc..." and the 2 eldest were given special time to draw pictures of Tomsk and talk about him if they needed to.  Wow! So pleased that they are obviously so cared for there 

[jaykay]

Good - that's what a caring school should be like  I'm so glad you moved them and it's working out 

[luckylady]

So sorry to hear that Plumseverywhere.  Its terrible when you lose a pet in any circumstances never mind such horrific ones.  We live in the middle of nowhere but still lost our 3 year old Charlie to traffic at school run time.  I don't know how you will manage to keep Snowball housebound with you having four children and the school summer holidays looming.  Good luck with that if thats the route you decide on.
When we adopted from cats protection it was on their condition that we kept the cats in at night.  We followed this rule then with our other four rescued litter and when we moved to the farm to get them in at night we rang a bell for feed time.  They soon learnt that this meant tea-time and no more playing out.  It still works with all of them.  Perhaps Snowball could be trained in this way even though she is 3 (our old girls of age 9 soon got the gist).  You could then ring the bell a few times during the day to make sure she is still close to home and give her a treat when she arrives.
I hope your girls are coping ok this evening. 

[YorkshireLass]

So sorry for your loss, and that you all had to see it. But wonderful handling by the school.

I would say in-at-night, out-in-daytime is the best compromise for everyone 

[plumseverywhere]

My mum used to ring a bell for our cats when I was a child! Brilliant idea, will do that. Very 'Pavlov's dogs' but it works! Thanks for the reminder 

Girls are having baths with some of mummy's lavender bath sherbet so I'm keeping everything crossed that they go to bed as relaxed as humanly possible considering. Fully prepared for some bad dreams though and we shall deal with them if/when they arise I guess x