He ran over someone’s cat and spent thousands on vet’s fees
Would you have done as well as Ben Allen? I am not sure I would have.
A cat jumps out in front of your car. You can’t avoid him. You run over him. You stop your car and wait from a gap in the traffic before grabbing him and rushing him to the nearest vet.
The cat has a damaged jaw and broken pelvis and the vet gives you two options: euthanise or pay several thousand dollars for surgery.
This is not your cat. You have no idea who cares for the cat. You decide to save the cat and pay up.
You then go in search of the cat’s “owner” using the Lost and Found Pets of Lexington Facebook group.
This is one of the good things about Facebook. This is when it really can be useful. He hasn’t found the cat’s owner yet but he has received some donations. Nowhere near the amount paid but he may get it all back. Something good often comes out of a good deed.
“I know it was the right thing to do,” Allen said.
An FB comment states. “Thanks for doing the right thing”.
It is about doing the right thing but how many of us could or would do it? The big decision was paying the large vet’s bill. I think a lot of people would stop and take the cat to the nearest but even that could be tricky. It can be difficult to handle an injured cat, find a vet in a possible a strange area and get priority treatment. But the money? A lot of people wouldn’t be able to afford it. They’d have to instruct the vet to euthanise and that makes the whole event doubly traumatic.
The truth is that a lot of people wouldn’t even stop. There is a moment when you are driving along and a cat shoots out and you know you have hit the cat when you decide to do the right or wrong thing. It is a split second decision which tells you what you are made of and what you know.
If you know and understand cats and care for a cat you’ll stop. If you are a dog lover and dislike cats but are a decent person you’ll still stop. I guess it is a test of character.
My thanks to Ruth aka Kattaddorra for finding this story.