Cats feel just as strongly as we do, especially when faced with major life-altering events.
I don't know this cat or the family who adopted her, but when I saw this story, I felt it deep within my core. I've been a mother for a little over a year now. Since the moment she was born, my daughter has been my entire world. My life was full and colorful before she came along, but oh boy has it become so much more vast and saturated since she's here. I can't describe becoming a parent in words; it's an indescribable experience for someone who hasn't experienced it yet. But the thing is that, together with all of these amazing new feelings, another thing entered my life the literal second I saw my daughter's tiny face for the first time in the delivery room - a fear that something will happen to her.
This fear is also indescribable. I can't fathom, I can't even begin to imagine a scenario in which something bad happens to my daughter. It's something I guess I will eternally fear until the end of life. I don't care about my fear of bugs anymore - the fear of losing my daughter makes my stomach turn. And this is why I felt so strongly when I learned about Callie the cat - this fear became a reality for her. She was a mama cat, but she lost her kittens. I can't even begin to imagine what she was going through. It's too awful to think about.
But because this life-changing event is so awful for cats just as much as it's awful for humans, I'd expect the shelter workers who cared for her to give her all the support she needed in such a hard time. But she became aggressive… so they put her on the euthanasia list. I'm honestly dumbfounded to learn that. It makes me want to go feral as well. If I were in this cat's paws I would absolutely go ballistic if something happened to my daughter. How could they not see it? How could her grief not have been met with compassion?
These are questions we might never get answers to… But she's no longer there, because she met a happier ending.