I've debated on sharing this story or not, it is not our normal happy-funny Tad story. But so far...there's not much I haven't shared with you guys regarding Tad, so why start now?
This morning, I let Tad out the back door of the clinic to trot across the alley way to piddle in the grass on the otherside. Chica followed, did her business, and came inside. Tad, however, will pee for days and days. I noticed Ilene had spotted a bee outside and made a bee-line (no pun intended) for the bee. I quickly caught her (she's not allowed outside), and when I looked back up for Tad, he was running extremely fast. He spotted something, and he was going to get it.
I don't like my dogs to chase things, and Tad is no exception. So, I thought I'd be smart and take the shortcut through the clinic to get him on the otherside. I get to the front doors within seconds, and there's no Tad...but, I can hear him barking at something.
Juuuuuuust greeeeat... :/
I followed the barking and found Tad between Wal-Mart and the clinic (which is not that big of distance, I always walk my dogs there). There was something on the grass in front of him, and he was barking and pawing and jumping around at it.
I ran over as fast as I could because I thought he'd found another bunny...only, it wasn't moving from what I could see. He wasn't acting aggressive...it was more of a, 'Please, get up and play with me...' sort of stance.
I realized that Tad's...find was a kitten. I panicked because my intial reaction was that Tad had just killed this kitten. I grabbed the baby as fast as I could and Tad and I both bolted back to the clinic. I won't give you any gory details, because it's not necessary...but, when I set the kitten on the treatment table...it's obvious this baby had been killed last night or early this morning. I assume early this morning based on a few...findings.
Dr. Holliday made sure to listen to the baby a long time to ensure that the kitten was in fact dead, and didn't need any help to...finish. We're kind of thinking that the kitten must've been hit by a car or something in the Wal-Mart parking lot, and the adrenaline of shock helped it get down the hill to us. Perhaps Tad saw a hawk or something else trying to carry it off and that's what he went for initially (he likes to chase birds)...the bird dropped the baby realizing Tad was on it's tail...? I'm not sure...I don't know, but there's no way Tad would have seen that kitten otherwise.
So, we packaged the baby and it will go off with our other cremations. The company we use is Live Oak, and they spread their ashes on their property which is a super nice place. So, while the baby had a hard life...it will at least have some respect and nice place to rest from now on...
I'm just sad that the boy didn't find the baby sooner...maybe we could have eventually adopted it out to someone? But, we'll eat ourselves alive with 'what if's' and 'maybe's'...so, we'll just let the baby rest in peace and know that we did what we could for it.
