[dixie]

Sorry to hear this it's horrible I know. We had an unlucky start with cats, our first cat just keeled over and died at a year old, the second one, again a year old who never usually went as far as the main road, got run over and killed, we discovered her whilst in the car with all 3 children, she was still fairly 'whole', I got out of the car to see if she was alive and a car narrowly missed me and went over her again, it was horrific, I took the children back up the drive and went back with a shovel, it was really distressing. The children were really good and got over it quickly, we then got 2 more cats (2 in case we lost another) and 8 years later we still have both, cats are all different and your remaining one may not venture that far, the bell is a good idea my friends mum used to do that too, all the best x

[luckylady]

Awww, lavender bath time should help them sleep better.  Hope you don't have too upsetting a night with them. 

[plumseverywhere]

Children slept really well. My 7 year old India had lots of tears just before bedtime, she was shaking, sobbing and asking lots of questions. It was hard to know how to answer some of them as she is little and also as it was straight before bed - Rainbow bridge helped!
I on the other hand, woke up and struggled - 3am woke up sobbing! Am glad it was me and not them though.

As for Snowball...she stayed in, she slept on Milli's bunk bed. Unbeknown to me she came into my room during the night and vomited mouse/rat/rabbit insides all over my bed  I didn't know about it until hubby got up, opened the curtains and said " you do NOT want to see what Snowball's done!!"" - blood everywhere, you can guess what I panicked had happened (that she'd been hit...) until we found lumps of furry sick - YUK!!!!  Can't win with these cats 

[SallyintNorth]

Oh so sorry to hear that sad story, plums    {{{{{{hugs}}}}}}

A vet friend of mine told me that of all the RTA cats he sees, 90% of them are black, and 90% of the remainder are tabby - light / brightly coloured cats are less likely to be hit.  Since hearing that I have always put silver luminous collars on all my cats, and have been especially vigilant about replacing lost collars on the black ones.  I have only ever had one killed at night - he was black and had lost his collar.    The silver luminous ones are by far the most visible, the yellow ones much less so.

If Snowball adapts to being in at night, and you adapt to her indoor nighttime behaviour  , that sounds like a good plan.  Otherwise, I'd fit a silver luminous collar.  I know a lot of people think the collars are more trouble than they're worth but I have never had any problem with them, provided I always get the right type.  Which is, ones with an elasticated piece and a proper buckle with a prong that goes through a hole in the collar.  The ones with a slidy buckle don't stay on five minutes.  Obviously, if it is to have a proper buckle it must have an elasticated piece so the cat can slip it if it does get caught on something.  The right type can be hard to find, most of them have the slidy buckles, so when I had cats I would buy 6 or more collars when I did find the right ones!

However, if the accident happened in daylight, then keeping her in until the school run is over may be the only safe solution.

More {{{{{hugs}}}}}

Sally
x

[plumseverywhere]

Thanks Sally     Again, it helps to hear stat's - it makes me feel that I can be proactive following a sad event. I'm not able to just sit back and trust in fate, if that makes sense, I need to DO something.
We've had the reflective collars before but I bought the ones without the prong bit that buckles it, we weren't sure if the 'mad cat lady' was removing them as she lost 3 in 2 weeks! I'll re-invest in another with the prong.
We will keep Snowball. After we no longer have her though in the years to come, no more cats. I shall invest in a collie (when the girls are older) and preferably one that decimates rats!

[deepinthewoods]

my cats go out at dusk and are back in at dawn and spend the day sleeping, theres much more traffic here during the day but hardly any at night so i figure they are much safer that way round

[Bramblecot]

my cats go out at dusk and are back in at dawn and spend the day sleeping, theres much more traffic here during the day but hardly any at night so i figure they are much safer that way round

Same here re the traffic.  Every day is a lottery.  They have no roads for a mile and hundreds of acres in one direction - but where do they go? Up our track and out onto the one road 

[plumseverywhere]

Agh! now I'm all confused as to which is the best way about it     Now I think of it, the road is quieter at night time, in fact the dog fox sits in the middle of the lane at about 3am just admiring the stars (not that I'm insomniac or anything     )
Have just ordered a super dooper silver reflective collar via amazon. Got one with good reviews from users so hopefully will be a step in the right direction.
I think what Roxy said is true in our case though, Snowball wanders off at night when the road is quiet but by 4am the Polish farm workers are shooting up the road to the local picking fields and it gets busy, this is probably when Toby got hit.
I guess we'll have to do our best and really, really hope.

[plumseverywhere]

And we now have a grieving cat.  Snowball will not leave us for more than 2 seconds to have a quick wee and is back in the house meowing and following Tony and I everywhere. We dont mind of course, but just feel so sad for her. Had a sheep or goat died, we'd have let the others see the carcus so they reduced the stress (being prey animals) perhaps should have let snowball say goodbye too. Oh dear. Lots of cuddles for her then 

[SallyintNorth]

Oh, poor Snowball 
When my old dog Horace died, his best pal Jacob the cat missed him at least as much as I did; if anything was more disconsolate than me for quite a while - a couple of weeks, I think, maybe longer.
And one of the cats I had that was killed on the road (motorway in broad daylight) was looking for his brother, who'd been killed the week before (on a suburban street, again in broad daylight) when we'd been visiting family.
Delightfully, however, when my now ex-hubby made his first visit back to what had been the marital home, a month after leaving, the dog and both cats ignored him completely.  Good dog!  Good cats!   

[plumseverywhere]

    now THAT'S made me smile! thank you
Sad though about the cat killed looking for his brother. You see those Youtube video's showing animals trying to help their hurt friends on roads sometimes, I've often wondered if they are true or staged but I think animals are definitely as tuned into emotion as we are.

[luckylady]

I couldn't agree more about grieving pets.  We had to have our 15 year old golden retriever Martha put to sleep on Monday    and our 12 year old golden retriever Toby has been absolutely lost since then.  It breaks my heart to watch him searching for her.  She was put to sleep in her favourite grassy spot in the sunshine and we let him nuzzle at her body but he still doesn't seem to have grasped that she is gone.  Bless him he is so confused as to where to pee now as he always waited for her to go and then he went on the same spot as hers.  He's done that all his life.  Just keeping our fingers crossed that he doesn't give up on life and we try to keep him as occupied as possible when he is not sleeping.

[HelenVF]

Really sorry to hear that  

Helen

[plumseverywhere]

Really sorry Luckylady     Its so hard isn't it?
I googled 'grieving pets' earlier and came up with some websites that give advice on how to help a pet deal with grief for one of their companions. It mainly said what I am sure you are doign already (as are we) - to give them some special food, lots of love and affection but also a chance to have private time if they feel the need to be alone for a bit. I so wish we'd let snowball at least see Tomsk, it might have helped her to understand but then, in the confusion on the road she might actually have seen what happened, I don' tknow.

[SallyintNorth]

I'm not sure that animals see the carcase of a dead friend as the dead friend.  Certainly when I brought home the body of my cat who had been shot dead, the dogs showed no sign that they recognised the limp black body as their friend Brendon.  Which I have always thought may indicate that animals perceive personality / existence differently - and perhaps more accurately - than ourselves.