After my wife, Becki, had finished hanging out the washing to dry, she came in with Xander.  Marvel followed them around to the side of the house but then decided to hop over the fence and stroll across the park towards the road.  He loved being outside in nice weather and would disappear for days at a time in summer.

Fifteen minutes later a friend from around the corner knocked on our door to tell us that a cat had been run down on the road at the top of my street and that she thought he was ours.  She identified him because of his very large size and distinctive colouring.  I came with her and there lying at the side of the very quiet road is Marvel, surrounded by kids.  Thankfully he was dead, as his injuries were horrific and not something I want to detail here in case my family read my blog.  I can only hope he died instantly.

I didn’t let anyone else in my family see his body because I want them to remember him for who he was and not what became of him.  We have many happy memories of him as we’d raised him since he was a kitten. Xander still calls for him.  He calls “Muh-uh?” while pointing around at the top of the kitchen units to where he’d usually spot him.  I explain to him that Marvel’s gone.  He understands “Marvel” and “gone” but doesn’t understand how Marvel can be gone so keeps calling for him.  It’s heart-breaking.  I’m sure he’ll forget soon as he’s so young but the rest of us won’t.

We live on a very quiet modern housing estate and there are no busy roads around us.  In fact the road that Marvel died on isn’t even properly surfaced yet as the builders are still putting up houses.  The motorist that ran him down didn’t have the humanity to stop.  Instead they left it up to children to find Marvel and take it upon themselves to find his owner.  Eventually the kids knocked on our friend’s door who then identified him.

The law in the UK states that that motorists have to stop if they run over a dog, but cats are not entitled to the same privilege.  I find that ridiculous.  Marvel was a marble Bengal pedigree cat and was bigger than some dogs.  If the law is based on size then they should stop.  If it’s based on the expense of the animal then they should stop.  It makes no sense at all.

We’re all hurting because we don’t know how he died.  It seems unlikely that he just walked in front of a car as he was 4 and a half years old and healthily fearful of cars.  We don’t know if he suffered.  We don’t know because the asshole in the car didn’t stop.  We all miss him and so does his brother, Mynx.

Accidents happen but if you run over a cat or any domestic animal then please stop, because they belong to a family and that family deserves to know what happened.

Update: Just 5 weeks later, our other cat Mynx was hit by a car and killed on the same section of road.  The girl that found him and came to tell us is actually the daughter of our friend that found Marvel.  Mynx and Marvel were brothers of the same age.  I can’t really understand how or why this has happened to them both on such a quiet road within such a short time frame, after having both lived here for 4 and a half years.  I wouldn’t like to calculate the odds on that.

I even considered the possibility that someone had done it on purpose but Marvel was killed in the late afternoon and Mynx was killed in the early morning, and it would be almost impossible to predict when to find a cat in the road.

After Marvel was killed, Mynx didn’t seem to know what to do with himself.  We gave him as much attention as we could to comfort him and every evening he’d cuddle up to our daughter, Brianne, on the sofa.

Usually I’d put the cats in the kitchen before going to bed, but I started letting him sleep on the sofa since he was comfortable.  Mostly because I felt sorry for him.

Once again, Xander doesn’t know what’s happened.  He knows he’s “gone”.  If I say the word “Mynx”, he’ll say “gone all gone”.  Now he looks out of the window for neighbours’ cats in our garden and shouts excitedly when he sees them.

We’ll miss you Mynx and Marvel.  I’m sorry we couldn’t prevent what happened.  It was cruel and unnecessary.  I doubt the motorist on each occasion even saved themselves 30 seconds by speeding along that road.