Letter to the editor

It’s Friday December 22 about 11:30 p.m. Us grown-ups and the kids are getting out of the car after coming back from Memphis. My cat Fletcher was across the road hunting, as cats do at night.

It’s hard not to see him, because he’s solid white and really shows up in the dark.

A truck drives by, stops in the middle of the road where we last saw Fletcher, fires a single shot and leaves.  Where they stop is less than 50 yards from the house.  My heart sinks because I immediately suspect what has happened.  

It’s unfortunate that the kids had to hear it, because I had to break the news to them the next day that someone shot one of our cats.  I found him on the side of the road the next morning, uninjured except for a single gunshot wound.

It’s also unfortunate that it was dark and I was unable to get a tag number and report illegal shooting from a vehicle.

(It’s still illegal even though it was just a cat and not a deer.) There are houses, livestock in the field across the road, other pets and people all around.  I suppose someone who sport shoots at pets in the middle of the night doesn’t stop to consider these things.

Although the incident was upsetting, and it still weighs on my mind that someone would shoot someone else’s beloved pet for fun three days before Christmas, we still managed to enjoy our holidays.  

I hope you did too, whoever you are.

 Jennifer Hadorn