Changing Lanes

Every time she hissed... Blood dripped from her mouth.

Her body was crushed & she was slowly letting go.

The human sat nearby helpless.

With rising hospital bills, I've reached at a point where every Dirham is precious. Every expense that can be eluded has been cut out of my life. No outings (not that I'm in a social mood lately), no petrol pump refreshment stops, no internet on the phone etc. I've even cut out on Salik which was something that never bothered me from the day of it's inception.

So I haven't picked up a dead cat off the road for a while. Reasons mainly being I haven't seen any that were on roads I could stop on or they already had their guts spilled all over so there wasn't much to save. Today on the way to Friday cricket (my daughters arrival has been delayed by more than a month so I'm enjoying the last few weeks of cricket left this summer) I took the longer route to avoid Salik. Two minutes from my destination I spotted a cat in the middle of the road. I quickly double parked on the side, wrapped a plastic bag around my hand like a glove and tried to pick up the dead cat. But it wasn't dead. As soon as I touched it, she lifted her head up and hissed at me. Broken rear legs and a back with blood wounds; and a blood laden mouth… she looked at me with disdain threatening to bite me if I touched her again. I stood there, in the middle of the road staring at her as she refused to let me pick her up. She’d turn her head quickly in my direction every time I moved and hiss at me as a drop of blood would fall from her mouth.

After a while a bunch of laborers passed by asking me if I’d hit it. I said no and told them I wanted to move it to the side. One of them got me a long pipe so that I could slowly nudge her. And nudge her I did. Every time the pipe touched her, she would hiss at me. She’d dig her front nails into the gravel, fighting my every nudge. But she was broken and was getting tired. The stupid human was annoying her and all she wanted was to sleep. After several nudges and a trail of blood, she was on the side of the road away from the traffic. A strong breeze blew by and as cats always do… she lifted her head, closed her eyes and enjoyed that cold breeze on her face. Then she laid her head down trying to fall asleep. But the human kept fidgeting in the spot he sat and that kept waking her up. A few more tired hisses and the human decided to leave her at peace.

I left her to suffer as she slowly let it go. Maybe the instant death another car would have given her might have been better. I do not know. I went back after the game of cricket. She was right where I’d left her though I think she’d tried to move as she was facing the other way. I picked her limp body up and laid her down in the sand nearby. The gleam in her eyes was still there and as filmy as it gets, I tried to close them. They wouldn't close and there was nothing more left for me to do....