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Dead kittens everywhere

An unwanted but needed reminder

Michael Freer
4 min readSep 16, 2019
Photo by Manki Kim on Unsplash

Generally speaking, cats are treated like rats here on the Dalmatian coast. They live by the bins, eating whatever scraps they can, and a number of people try to poison them. Some of them you see full of energy, well-fed, playing and hunting around the bins. Others are riddled with disease, with eye, skin and stomach issues.

To a certain extent, nature has found a way against the poison and disease. The mothers give birth to litters of 6, 7, 8 or even more, so the cat population is growing in some places.

Blood and gore

It’s easy to spot these places, as you’ll see a roadkill cat every few days, guts hanging out, skull crushed, slowly disintegrating and eroding day by day, as car by car accidentally runs over them. From little kittens to fully grown cats, you’ll see all sizes on your drive along the coast, flat as a pancake.

The worst is when you see a cat that was hit, but not killed swiftly, and in the heat the bloated body is something from your worst nightmares. Still a cat, still something you could pet, but the eyes non-existent, scaring you enough not to go near it.

It’s not often we’re reminded of our mortality, but seeing these cats remind me how suddenly things can change. I feel a little sick inside…

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Michael Freer
Michael Freer

Written by Michael Freer

Social enterprise enthusiast, avid traveller and fiction writer. www.ensoco.co.uk

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