h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I had an interesting weekend. My father backed over our family's 12-year old cat, needless to say the poor little bugger is dead. Naturally you'd think Dad feels pretty low about this. Thing is, this was not the first time he's run over the cat. He managed to do it about 3 months ago and broke the cat's leg - so you could, from a certain point of view, deduce that Dad took 2 tries to do the thing properly!

It makes me reflect on poor Dad's incredibly bad luck in having the misfortune to be the one to run over the family cat not ONCE, but TWICE ... and also on the nature of predestiny. It would appear that fate really had it in for Puss this year.
 

Another way to look at it is perhaps the cat was suicidal. It can happen. They get old and crotchedy and just want to die. I have seen it before.

I was left with a cat that belonged to my old housemates sister. (This really happened btw). In the span of 3 months, I ran over the cat 2x's (did not injure it too badly on either occassion). Fished it out of the stream behind my house 1x. And fished it out of the pool 2 xs. The 2nd time I fished it out of the pool, it was because it was dead. I was extremely upset. You have no idea. I called my old housemate's husband who had to calm me down and talk me through fishing this dead cat out of the pool. The only conclusion we could come to was that the cat was suicidal. We told the sister that it died in its sleep. It was 18 yrs old and only had 1 tooth in its mouth and a very raggedy coat, so she believed us.

Again, sorry to hear about it but don't let him get down on himself. 12 is actually fairly old for most cats

Funny you mention cats being suicidal, Sumogirl. My sister mentioned just the same thing. Also we had been thinking that the cat was getting a bit crook - he'd lost a bit of weight and also had a large lump on his left shoulder, which may just have been cancerous. So who knows? Maybe he figured it was time. Alternatively, I think it's entirely likely he was lacking his normal alertness hence not being able to play "dodge" with the car as was his established custom!

Anyway I know for a fact, having known several that have done this, that cats know when it's time and just creep off to die alone somewhere. It seems to be in their nature. So I don't find it a big leap at all between this behaviour, and actually being suicidal.

Thanks for your thoughts, at any rate. I told Dad he's only one in a long, long line of pet owners who've dispatched them in an untimely fashion with the family car. I got a wry grin from that, so I guess he's on the upswing

Yeah.... I wouldn't at all be surprised if animals (dogs and cats) were consious of themselves and cognizant of their surroundings. I had a cat named Isabella (named after Queen Isabella who funded Christopher Columbus - our previous cat - yes my dad is wierd), that lived to be 22 yrs old. She had a pretty set routine which included hanging with our neighbors pitbull (land shark) in the afternoon. Also, she would sleep in the driveway about where I would park toward dusk when I would come home. That was usually when LandShark would go for his walk and he would always come up to Isabella and sniff at her.

Anyway, when she died (obviously of old age - slunk off and we just never found her), LandShark was disturbed on his walk when she wasn't there. And, my neighbor said he was visibly sulky for a couple of days.

Wierd, but is certainly anecdotal evidence toward animal consciousness.

Sumogirl