Rufus

[plumtreeblossom]

I'm sad for my mother. A neighbor with a gun shot and killed poor Rufus, one of my mother's cats. She suspects it's the same neighbor who shot another of the family's cats about 15 years ago. She heard a shot about a week ago, while Rufus was out. My niece later said she saw him lying flat on the grass in the dark back yard, but did nothing about it at the time. My mother is a shut-in and couldn't roam the overgrown 3/4 acre property to look for him or his body, and no one will go look for her. She can only go as far as the back deck, and from there she's noticing the blue-green bottle flies that only appear when something is dead. My guess is that he died under the deck and his corpse is there. My brother and niece are giving her no compassion or help. They say they hated the cat anyway because he was fat and smelly.

This is what's so hard about being the "away" child of an elderly parent. If I'd been there, I would have raced right out after hearing the shot. I would have called the police. I might even been able to save him. She shouldn't be living there in that house, with them. But safe, clean senior housing is a fate worse than death to her, and apparently worse than her cat's death. She's heartbroken. I always enjoyed spending time with sweet Rufus on my Christmas visits. I didn't care that he was fat and needed extra grooming help to not smell bad (which he didn't always get). He was delightfully loving and had a sweet trill instead of a meow that was so charming. His sister Polly must miss him, and now I worry for her, too. That neighbor should be shot himself. There are some horrible people in this world.

Comments

[oneagain.livejournal.com]

Oh god, why? Was the neighbor held accountable 15 years ago? Did he give any reasons? I am so, so sorry. I understand the special hell of losing a pet--but this? Being shot?

I love fat cats. And if he smelled so bad, maybe your brother or niece could have given him a bath?

So sorry, Love. Hugs to you, regards to your mom. And if your neighbor did this, may I suggest a Justice ritual? I won't go into details here, but poke me if you like.

[plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com]

I don't think the neighbor was held accountable either time. I really don't know why, not having lived there in 25 years. He would be one sorry bastard if I'd been there.

I love fat cats, too. My mom's very long haired cats could only maintain efficient hygiene if their rumps were kept shaved. My mom used to take them regularly for that, but then my brother took her car away, and he won't take them himself. And so their hindquarters became foul. Not their fault at all, and my brother and niece could have helped mom keep them clean rather than resenting what the animals couldn't help.

[oneagain.livejournal.com]

He took her car away...I assume that is part of being a shut-in as you wrote earlier? Oof. I am curious what they would say if you asked them why they did not bother to help...

[hermitgeecko.livejournal.com]

That is completely awful. I am so, so sorry for your mother and for you. I wish your relatives weren't being horrible, and I wish it hadn't happened in the first place.

[spacechicken.livejournal.com]

That's awful. Her neighbor should have the shit kicked out of him, and would if I were living nearby. Your brother sounds like an asshole.

[thespian.livejournal.com]

Ashke, one of my cats from Raleigh, was a found cat when he was about 6 weeks old, because in Apollo Heights, a pretty poor part of town, kids in the neighbourhood were *encouraged* to go and shoot the cats in the feral cat community with bb guns. According to one neighbour (who didn't approve, and was the one who told me about Ashke, who was begging food during a bbq but terrified of people; it took me 2 weeks with a hav-a-heart trap to catch him), 'It's like they think if they're shooting cats it's ok; they aren't shooting each other."

[heatherp8.livejournal.com]

how horrible!
there's a special place in hell for people who are mean to animals, but this? this deserves something more immediate. WTF is wrong with people?!
My condolences to your Mum for the loss of her kitty in this dreadful way.

[evilshell.livejournal.com]

How horrible, that poor cat and your poor mother. My heart breaks for them :(

[weegoddess.livejournal.com]

Oh geez, honey. That's AWFUL. WTF????

I'm so sorry.

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

Where the heck does your mother live?

On the whole, this is why I feel unsafe when I'm outside of cities. Cities are safe, because they have people around who will help you STOP crazies like that. Outside of cities, crazies can just, y'know, SHOOT pets and people.

[plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com]

They live in a suburb of Rochester, NY. It has the population density of a Boston exurb, like maybe Hopkinton. Which is to say, not so rural that the police couldn't have been there within a few minutes of the gunshot.

I'm the same way as you about only feeling safe in cities. There is infrastructure, there are laws and rules designed to protect us, there are agencies and services to help us. I can not imagine living farther that 15 minutes from a hospital, a fire department, and a precinct station. And six coffee shops.

My Wabbit is going on a camping trip this month to a place that is completely off-grid. No cell phone service, even. I am terrified, and it feels like he is stepping off the earth entirely. He could die and I wouldn't know it for days. For that matter, I could die and he wouldn't know. He has promised to drive into civilization every day so he can call and let me hear his voice.

[daisytells.livejournal.com]

Mare, it is here in the city where people get shot, sometimes innocent people caught in the crossfire of a gang dispute. I dont understand how or when guns got so popular here in town. I was a kid in Roxbury, and there were no guns around then in the fifties. Most of the time we didn't even lock our doors. I left my English Raleigh bike in the downstairs hall, not locked up - we lived on the fourth floor.
What in Hell has happened to our world????

[joyeous.livejournal.com]

Sadly, I just don't believe that is true. Some of the worst crimes I've heard about towards animals have been in the cities (do you watch any of the Animal Cops shows on Animal Planet?) I remember a few cats that were set on fire I think in Quincy or Braintree area. A lot of the time it's kids who just weren't even taught that it's wrong to mistreat animals. :-( Sometimes it's sociopathic behavior and sometimes it leads to crimes against humans, which is scary. And even when they do catch the people that commit these crimes, sadly they usually just get a fine. Very rarely do they serve any time.

Also, while we do have animal cops in the big cities, sadly that's the first place to get cut. A friend of mine was an animal cop (they are paid through Boston Police Dept) but when the City has to make budget cuts, and the police dept is told to cut some staff, are they going to cut a city patrolman or an animal cop? Sadly, my friend lost his job. That just means one less person to prevent people from committing crimes like the above. :-(

[koshmom.livejournal.com]

That's terrible! You can likely call your mom's city's police department, or MSPCA, and tell them you live out of state and your shut in mom thinks her cat may be dead in the backyard/under deck. Someone should come to the house and look for the cat, and dispose of it properly. You don't want your mother to have to smell her own cat's decomposition! And tell them that you suspect the neighbor shot it. How thoughtless of your siblings!

[catling.livejournal.com]

Oh God, I am so sorry. What a pathetic asshole, I hope karma devours him and damn soon. I do not understand people who do things like this, they remain a horribly baffling painful mystery, I wish we could ship them all to desert islands and let them kill each other off within a generation. Ugh.

[squibbon.livejournal.com]

I'm so sorry. I hate the way that so many people try to dismiss, devalue, and destroy the bonds between pets and their owners.

[pywaket.livejournal.com]

I'm so sorry! Your poor mom. Poor Rufus.

I'd file a complaint with the police. Someone who does this once will do it again - maybe at least if they do it again, there will be a record of previous offenses.

*hugs*

[maps-or-guitars.livejournal.com]

I'm really sorry. That's horrible. I wish I could believe that this bastard could be held accountable for his actions - and I wish your sib could get his head out of his ass and help out.

People really do suck sometimes.

[daisytells.livejournal.com]

Agreed - horrible people! Why would anyone hate an animal so much that they would just shoot it? We had three of them when we lived up in the NH woods, and all three went out all day returning for supper and not allowed out at night (a skunk lived int the yard). I dont know what I would have done if someone had done something like that to one of mine -- maybe I would have scalped him! Lots of people had guns up there, but when they went hunting it was not for pet animals. And lots of them just went out target shooting in a cul de sac somewhere and never killed anything.
I am grinding my teeth thinking about that beast who killed your Mom's cat! Pretty cat, too...

[kencf0618.livejournal.com]

So sad...

[surrealestate.livejournal.com]

Oh god, how terrible! I can't hardly believe your brother and niece are behaving that way, too. :()

[greenlily.livejournal.com]

I'm so sorry to hear this. How awful for your mom. :(

[chienne-folle.livejournal.com]

Oh, god, that's awful. And terrible as the loss of a pet is -- and to murder, at that -- it sounds to me like the greater problem is your mother's living situation. Does anyone in the family have the financial resources to hire someone to come in for an hour every day to do things for your mother that her relatives won't do? And if there's no money for that, is there any sort of public alternative? Does she qualify for a visiting nurse, or is there any sort of volunteer service that will visit elderly shut-ins or something?

[muffyjo]

OMG, that's horrid! I'm so sorry to hear that. What a nasty piece of work that son of a no-good hound dog is.