Petey was the beloved pet of an elderly lady down the street, Miss Dooty. When Miss Dooty died, Petey was thrown out on the street and eventually showed up at the feral cat colony that I feed.
Petey swiftly made friends with the other community cats, including Creampuff, a seal-point long-haired cat who behaves as if he was also once an indoors cat that was dumped. Petey and Creampuff both acted like they wanted to be indoors cats again, coming into my house for a few seconds when I was bringing the food out and yelling at me that they wanted their food. I delayed because I needed to prepare a cat room for them to keep them isolated from my own cats while I treated them for fleas and worms and verified that they had no diseases that my cats could get. I was going to do that last week but hurt my back doing gardening work, so I did not get it done until Friday evening so I could bring the cats in on Saturday morning.
Creampuff showed up on Saturday morning.. Petey did not.
I got a call today from someone relaying the bad news that Petey had been struck by a car several blocks away and was deceased. He died literally hours before I was to bring him in.
Creampuff is in the cat room right now, lonely because he no longer has his friend Petey. I am sad and feel guilty because if I’d only done this the previous weekend when planned, Petey would still be alive. Petey had joy and fun and seasons in the sun, my last video of him on the Thursday before he died is him playing with Creampuff on my front lawn. But he should have had more.
So it goes.
— Badtux the Sad Penguin
Badtux the Snarky Penguin 
That’s a tough one Badtux. The what-ifs and if only’s will remain. This will sadden all but you were doing the right thing because you care. I am so sorry this happened. Don’t let this change you!
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Condolences.
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So sorry. But nobody can see into the future. I’ve got a similar big semi-feral long haired yellow cat. He’s ‘my’ cat in the sense of I’m the only one who gets to pet him. He’ll spook his way into my house, scooting out the door if I cough. He’s brave but careful and obviously was domestic when he a kitten before he got dumped by the creek. It’s a slow cul-de-sac but I worry about the traffic anyway. Nothing I can do, he’s too flighty to ever be an indoor cat again. But he’s my pal, Yellowboy, walking with me to check the creek level and insisting on his strokes, zigzaging between my feet trying to trip up old arthritic me. Nice when someone loves you. And I don’t even feed him, yet I’m the one who gets to pet him. Unpredictable feline love.
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I am so sorry for Petey. You did what you could for him.
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I realized someone died, but why wasn’t Petey rescued by a rescue group or the Humane Society. Did this elderly lady no no one that could do this?
People are so awful and pets and animals suffer for it. So sad. Dont feel guilty. You had no way of knowing. Soon, hopefully, the other cat will become friends with the rest of yours. I love cats!
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Know..autocorrect
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The old lady tried. She was busy dying so didn’t have many cycles to spend on it. But I was told that they took Petey to a rescue that had agreed to take him, and the rescue didn’t take him. And that they took him to several other rescues, and those rescues didn’t take him either. So Petey was just turned out onto the streets and he managed to survive a year and 4 months there, until an irresponsible car driver smushed him 😦 .
I only learned Petey’s story recently, which was why I had made plans to try to bring him back inside. Sadly, the day before I was to bring him inside, he died. SIGH.
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