The Cat on the Road (a true story)

• by Ken Hiebert

John had shown up for work a half hour late on Monday morning, but lucky for him he had an excellent excuse.  It seems he had been driving a little fast on the way to work that morning and hadn’t seen the cat as it sprinted across the road.  He swerved and hammered on the brakes but still hit the poor animal.  Being an animal lover, he stopped his truck and got out to check if the cat was alright.  When he saw it laying by the side of the road with its tail twitching, he went and got a tire wrench out of the back of his truck and finished it off.  Not wanting to leave it in the street he then put the deceased in the back of his truck and drove off.

When he finally got to work, he took his boss outside to show him the cat (which was still in the back of the truck) as he was explaining the situation.  As they were talking and leaning on the truck box, a police car drove up and stopped beside them.  The officer rolled down the window, took a look at the truck and said, “And you must be the Cat Murderer…”

The guy stammered, “Uh, well… it was an accident… really…” He proceeded to explain the morning’s course of events while the officer listened intently.  After the story was all told, the police officer said, “Interesting… that’s not what I was told.”  He then relayed what had been told him by the lady who witnessed the grisly events…  

The old lady had been sitting on her front porch enjoying a morning coffee and watching her cat return from the bushes with a small mouse. She looked up when she heard the truck approaching.  She could tell it was going quite fast by the sound of the engine.  As the truck came into view, she saw her neighbor’s cat begin to cross the street.  The truck seemed to swerve purposely in order to hit the cat just as it was attempting to jump out of the way.  The driver then slammed on the brakes, got out and walked over to the old lady’s cat who was now sunning itself on the side of the road with its prize and proceeded to crush its skull with a steel bar.  Then he threw it into the back of his truck and sped off in a cloud of dust.  Once the horrified woman regained her composure, she immediately called 911 and reported the incident.

When the officer finished speaking he got out of his car and walked around to the front of the guy’s truck.  Stopping and looking up, he beckoned the two men to come over and have a look, which they did.  As they came around the front of the truck, their eyes followed those of the police officer who was looking down at the front bumper.  There, nestled on the bumper, next to the left headlight, was a cat, quite dead.  There seemed to be little in the way of explanation for this, although perspective is everything and some things are simply not as they first appear.