Is it such an amazing thing?

So, massive, MASSIVE TW on this, please don't read if you are affected by traffic colisions, graphic injury descriptions, animal injury/death or similar. There are no images, only text.

I was driving into town with my housemate and a woman a few cars in front ran over a cat. It was twitching and spasming horribly because it had a massive head wound, bleeding profusely. It ended up basically jacknifing itself onto the verge, where it stopped moving. A guy with a Porsche tried to 'flick' it onto the verge with his foot (what the f*ck dude, that's someone's baby) and it gave one last horrible twitch and its head curled back and it just... Died? But there were all these people stood around and nobody was doing anything. One guy bent down to put his fingers in front of its mouth and he said he couldn't feel any breathing. I was on autopilot, I didn't care if I got covered in blood, I just needed to help it, so went to pick it up and a police car drew up on its way to another job and I asked if they had anything I could wrap the cat up in so I could take it to the vets and he gave me some nitrile gloves and a thick plastic bag. I didn't want to put the cat in the bag in case it was still alive, so we laid the bag on the verge and I carefully scooped up the cat and laid it on the bag. The police officer tucked its tail in next to it and my housemate and I took the cat to the vets. The receptionist came straight to us when we got there and took the cat from me to take it to the vet nurses, but it was already gone. I mean, it was badly, BADLY hurt, and I'm almost glad it died in a way because it would have been in huge amounts of pain and absolutely terrified. I just couldn't leave it there, cold and alone on the side of the road, and I didn't want the owners to find it like that, covered in blood, broken teeth, twisted body. Couldn't leave it.

I've been crying since it happened.

People have been calling me a saint, a hero, IDK what. The police, the people at the vets, my housemate, his mum, they've all said what a good person I am and it makes me feel sick. I did what anyone would do. I'm not a hero, I couldn't save the cat. But the bit that is worse is that people think I did something special by stopping? Like that deserves praise? Is humanity so messed up at this point that we just expect to leave injured animals alone and in pain, to die away from their homes and humans and remain anonymous and unclaimed, their deaths uncounted?

I'm sorry if this upsets anyone, but I'm just confused by it all. I'm distraught.

Mela_B

I'm so sorry that happened to you. And the cat. I would be distraught as well 😔💜

Babichev

That’s a pretty upsetting experience. Be easy on yourself. I hope the trauma of this experience passes soon and you can be comforted knowing you did what you were able. If that poor cat could thank you for trying to do what you could to help it or at least comfort it in its final moments, I’m sure it would.

Thank you for being there. ❤I sat with a possum one time who had been hit at a truck stop. It was grievously injured but I got it into the grass and it was not alone or in danger of being hit again as it passed.

Sometimes just to be there offering a kind and caring essence is all we can do.

Lovelight

@BuggleBear You gave it love and care and that's what's great! Most of all you had it in you to step up and do that.

Sorry the poor fellow had to endure that and that now you're distraught by it all. Know that you did the best you could and I am glad. I believe that most humans, the by stander effect aside, would do and or feel just about the same way you did. It's not everyday, thankfully, that most of us are faced with such tragedies at least on an ongoing basis and are able to do something. So I take it that's where most of the 'rarity'/praise comes from. ♥️

I've always been sceptical of the bystander effect, choosing instead to believe that people would generally do the right thing.

As we were driving down the road, after we'd seen the collusion, I told my friend to pull over because I had to go back. He said that lots of people had stopped and it was OK.

Lots of people HAD stopped, but very few got out of their cars, and the ones that did get out, did nothing to help.

Bystander effect proven again.

applepie55

I’m sorry you had to witness this and thank you for being there for this poor animal. As far as praise goes, you did the right thing and people are seeing that. Even though we would hope any other person did the same, they didn’t, and you stepped up. It’s the same concept as kids who get straight A’s- just because it’s what’s expected, doesn’t mean it’s not praise worthy. And the attention you receive for this good act will hopefully inspire someone else to do the right thing when necessary.

cookiecrumb

I think a love for animals kind of creates a common human bond. We are so good at distrusting each other because we as a society categorize each other into these judgmental boxes. But animals don't do that, and because of that, we can bond over a common love for animals, which may be why some people thought you were heroic. We just need to get back to the point where we bond over our common love for our fellow human.