A very good reason to be wary of letting your cat outdoors

Unfortunately, this past Sunday morning had Angie and I being reminded of one of the horrible reasons why to be wary of allowing a cat to roam free on it's own outdoors. Never mind the fear of running into traffic or that a larger animal of some sort might harm your kitty. This reason sickens me so... the fact that another human may do some very horrible things to your beloved pet.

That is what we found. I will skip much of the gory details but let's just say this cat had been bound, tortured and quite possibly drowned in the end or disposed of in the water after the person killed it.

The morning was going so well before this! The humidity had broken and we enjoyed two coffees sitting on the back deck calling it a perfect summer morning. Before going to get groceries we decided to visit Smythe Park for a quick check at the ponds in hopes of Angie seeing the Great Blue Heron that I'd seen a number of times in recent weeks. And we did see him! And he was maybe 20 to 30 feet from us. A great viewing of this magnificent creature!

But, on our way in we noticed a dead animal off the side of the road, at the edge of the first pond. On our way out is when we stopped to investigate fearing it was one of the resident Beavers and discovered the horror that lay beneath this pillow case. We agreed this was no way for a cat to left out for the world to see... and there is a public pool in the park which would be opening soon and a child might stumble upon this as well. Angie disposed of the cat in one of our cloth grocery bags and placed in the garbage can nearby. What more could we do?

Well, after getting groceries and dropping Ang off at home, I went up to 12 Division and reported the find to an officer. I wasn't sure how much action would be taken with this seeing as little of a report was taken down other than a scribble on some paper of the park name and where the cat was. That was on Sunday, today is Wednesday and the story has made the local news. It's on the OSPCA website now as well. I called their 800 number this morning and corrected a few details that are showing in the various newspapers and on-line links. I am not sure if this is critical information or not but it does change the story a bit.

See, the cat was left out in the open. A pillow case was over part of the body at the edge of the pond. There were a couple garbage bags as well. The black cloth bag was ours and it was us (well Angie) who put it in the garbage can. The people handling this investigation also have our home number and my name.

So a part of me feels better that this is not going un-noticed. But I still feel awful about what we found. I can't imagine the terror that poor cat went through. Some people think cats are just dumb animals, but it lives, breathes, feels and bleeds like a person... all animals do.

It's going to take me some time to push this to the back of my mind. I enjoy that park very much. It's not a groomed park like another favorite place of mine being James Gardens which leads into Lambton Woods. And I think with the un-manicured grounds, it attracts more wildlife. There are a lot more insects in that park and this brings in a lot more birds.

I visited the park yesterday, saw the Heron again, but my drive in and out of the park had me scoping the grounds on both sides for any more animal horrors. It's not exactly what I want in my mind when out on a nature walk.

I wonder who owned this cat? Was it a feral? Doesn't really matter. But suppose it was someone's cat? And that someone adored that cat as much as I do with Meadow? The difference being is that I won't let Meadow roam outside unsupervised. But that doesn't mean the person who may have owned this cat didn't love it as much.

So, yes, Meadow does go outside, but only under supervision as I mentioned, and she is on a harness with about 25 ft of leash tied near the deck. She has lots of room to roam in the backyard but can't ever stray out of it. She is quite happy with the situation, it's been that way for her for as long as she's ever gone outside. I am happy with knowing she's safe and this won't happen to her. Occasionally someone tells me I am mean for what I do with her, but seriously, look at her outside on her harness here... does she look unhappy?

I just hope that this person is found. The thoughts of someone doing this again makes me ill. To know someone in my neighbourhood is capable of such actions more than upsets me.

I let a few friends of mine know what we found that day as they frequent Smythe. The media is now spreading the word to the public.

Let them be found or perhaps karma will step in soon?