Very sorry Minty. We lost a cat the same way back when I was in college. Best mouser we had, too.
how are the kids taking it?
They took it hard last night. I'm a mess at work this morning.
I think I am moving into the anger portion of grieving because I really want to hunt down the freakING jerk who hit my cat and drove off and left him to die. If my neighbor hadn't seen it happen I wouldn't have found him and he would have died alone in the ravene across the street from my house.
I was able to find him and bring him to the emergency clinic but his injuries were so bad that the vet actually said the putting him down was the more humane option. I feel good knowing that Howard hung on long enough to be able to say he loved us and got to hear that we loved him - very much. I got to hold him, and pet him so those last couple of hours of anguish he suffered in were alleviated if only for a few moments. The look on his face as they carried him away was, "it's o.k. dad, don't be sad. I'll always love you guys for giving me a loving home."
We miss him lots already. We only had him for a few months but we loved him so much.