This has been bugging me all morning. I live on a very busy street. It’s one of the main North/South (or East/West, depending on what part of the city you are in) streets in the city. Depending on the time of day, it has taken me up to five minutes before there is a break in the traffic so that I can back out of my driveway. It’s usually not that bad, but regardless of the time of day, there are only a few occasions when I can pull out of my driveway without waiting for at least a few cars to pass by first. But at least I have the sense to know when it is safe to pull out into the street.

Now that it has started warming up a bit, I’ve seen a few cats wandering freely around the neighbourhood. One of those was a cute black and white cat that came over to visit my cats every once in a while. We think it lived across the street since I had seen it wandering around their house, but for all I know maybe it was just visiting a cat or two on that side of the street as well. Well, as of this morning, it can’t visit any cats on either side of the street. Because when I left for work this morning it was lying in the middle of the street, obviously dead. And it hadn’t been there an hour earlier.

And while I’m sad for the cat, and I hope that at least it died quickly, I’m angry at the owners for letting it run free around such a busy street. It’s four lanes of traffic. Constant traffic. And as much as I credit my cats with being pretty smart in finding ways to wake me up in the morning, I would never credit them with enough sense to stay out of the road. All you need is one squirrel darting across the street and you have a cat right on its tail.

I may look silly taking my cats outside on leashes, but it’s better than looking out my front door and seeing one of them lying in the street.

fun under the clouds