Jimmy the Cat

There are at least half a dozen homeless cats (abandoned or wild, born in the street) in our little neighborhood. Several people in the neighborhood are nice enough to feed these homeless animals. Most of them manage to survive OK - except for one. An old, very skinny dark brown cat, in rough shape. The right-hand part of his face showed heavy battle damage - either from a fight with a dog, or a car. His right eye also appeared to be damaged. From talking with one of the caretakers, I found out that he had been around for at least 3 -4 years, and had a very hard time surviving the winters. He had taken refuge in the parking garage of one of the apartment buildings.

I became aware of this poor boy in the spring of 2013, and went to see him on a regular basis, with cat food. He always tried to meow, but couldn't produce any sound. He was always very nice to smaller cats, and let them eat first. He had a hard time swallowing, wet food or dry food. He was always very appreciative of food, attention, and caresses, and always happy to see me. I decided to call him "Jimmy". After a while, he'd let me pick him up and hold him - he'd go to sleep right away. In the fall of 2014, I decided that I was going to take him to the vet or to an animal shelter, to take care of his ailments and to find him a good home (I actually wanted to try and see how he, Paco and Pukkie would get along). Unfortunately, I kept procrastinating. Then, when I came back from a business trip on 11 December, he wasn't there anymore. He was last seen on the day before. I kept looking for over a week. When I started to put up posters in the neighborhood, a man came up to me and said he knew where he was. He took me to "his" street, and told me that he had found him on the side of the street, killed by a car, and had moved him under the nearby bushes. Terrible! Sweet Jimmy had deserved much better than that. My procrastination had become fatal to him. With the help of one of the caretakers, I buried Jimmy behind our apartment building...