Could this heart-breaking loss have been avoided?

SooToday.com received the following letter today from loyal reader Curtis Vanderloo, whose girlfriend Debbie Rathbone and her children are grieving the sudden and savage loss last night of a beloved 18-year-old cat.

They witnessed their longtime pet being carried off by a coyote on Atwater Street.

The upset pet owner found it too difficult to convey her own thoughts, so she got Vanderloo to write this letter.

************************* What if? That is the question we ask ourselves after any tragedy. What if I had done this?

What if I had done that?

What if I was one second sooner?

What if... He was kind. He was gentle. He was caring. What if they had replaced the missing section of fence [shown above]? He was adventurous. He was cautious. He was experienced. What if they didn't let him be the natural explorer he was? He was still young. He was still excited. He was still wishful. What if someone cared that he died last night? He was 18. He was like her first child. He was her little Peanut. The humane society said: "Call the MNR, we don't deal with that" and "You shouldn't let your cat out." The MNR said: "Call a trapper, we don't deal with that" and "Coyotes are protected." What they didn't deal with was the screaming cry that woke us up.

Our good-natured cat, sitting on our porch, enjoying the nice weather like he usually does, was cornered by a coyote.

He fought a tremendous fight and screamed with an unnatural sound.

What they didn't deal with was him running down the stairs, still half asleep, still just in his boxers as he tried to race out to save the cat.

The cat pushed the coyote to the ditch and used his 18 years of experience to claw and bite for his life.

What they didn't deal with was her running to the window only to watch her 20-pound cat get carried off by its neck.

The cat was still alive as he got carried off down the road.

What they didn't deal with was him running down the street in the middle of the night only to see a paralyzed cat in the ditch.

The coyote bounded off through the hole in the fence.

What they didn't deal with was him running back to get his truck keys, all the while watching over his shoulder to make sure the coyote didn't come back.

Poor Peanut laying there, scared, wondering why he wasn't able to just enjoy a nice night out on his porch.

What they didn't deal was him consoling her, for just a second as she came out of the house and he went in.

In that 30-second gap, the coyote came back and took off with her cat.

What they didn't deal with was them searching the area, hoping for a glimpse of that poor cat. They didn't deal with not sleeping the rest of the night, because all they heard was the cat that wasn't at the door. They didn't deal with having to tell their little girls, that the cat they had known for the last eight and 12 years of their lives was no longer with them. You say, it was only a cat. We say, what if it were your dog? We say, if a couple of coyotes can kill a cow, what if they go after your children? We say, who deals with that? If you live on Atwater Street or nearby, protect your cats, protect your dogs, protect your children... because apparently nobody deals with that.

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