Cats and cars

Have you ever wondered why cats like to sleep under cars, behind tyres, on top of the car's roof? It is as if cars are cat magnets that cats are extremely attracted to them.

Many times, we've heard stories about cats being run over by cars just beacause they were catnapping in places that weren't meant to be. But all these stories that I heard, were so far away from me that I never felt the severity of the death of a cat being run over. Until 2 days ago.

I was on my way out from the male psychiatric ward at the old hospital. A staff nurse has parked her car right infront of the main gate and she was starting her car, to make a move out of the compound. While we were walking out, she was backing her car out. We didn't hear anything abnormal at all. But as she was going further away from her original spot, I saw something writhing in pain on the grass. At first it did not register to me what was that. After awhile, I finally realized that it was a cat, squashed and on the verge of death. It was stammering as the last breath of life escaped from its body. Its brain were half splattered out from its skull and its eyes were all out from their sockets.

I couldn't believe what I saw and I immediately alerted the driver. She was also shocked of what just happened. But I don't blame her as no one would expect a cat will still be under the car when the engine is on.

So there. I saw the death of a cat, squashed by a car. That image still haunts my head.