My contempt for casual cat killers - how dare they squash a much-loved family member and not even stop By Anna Maxted For The Daily Mail Published: 12:11 BST, 13 June 2024 | Updated: 12:35 BST, 13 June 2024 e-mail 13 View comments One Saturday last summer, my beloved ten-year-old cat Buster didn't come in for breakfast. He rarely missed a meal, and by mid-afternoon I was worried. I searched around the block.
So did my husband and my eldest son. I asked on our street WhatsApp group if anyone had seen him. The next morning I was up early, frantically looking for him outside, when a neighbour messaged me that on his jog he'd seen a cat that looked like Buster 'unconscious' on the pavement.
The neighbour appeared and ran with me to where my sweet, loving animal lay curled up lifeless at the side of the road. I just felt my heart shatter. My youngest son, 17, was on holiday with friends.
We told him and he sobbed. He flew home early, messaging me non-stop. His grief cut through me.
He wrote, 'I feel like I will do anything other than accept this as truth. It's just so unfair on him.' And: 'I just want to be with my boy just one more time.
' I remain bereft. My world is grey without him. He wasn't just 'a cat'.
He was a unique, fantastic character. We adored everything about him, from the fact that he was dismissive of my husband who occasionally found fault with him, to his habit of purring, dribbling and kneading, claws out, on one's leg ('Ouch! Buster! Please!'). It was my honour.
