Adolf the Cat

I'm sad today. We found this morning, Adolf the cat, lying soaking wet beside our driveway. At first, we thought someone must have drowned him and thrown him into our yard. He was a stray feral black and white cat that had been hanging around and eating our outdoor cat's food. Just yesterday he had gotten brave and actually came up onto our back porch.
He was already stiff. It must have happened early morning. How sad. He was just a forgotten little thing that we had taken under our wing. Who would do such a terrible thing to a defenceless animal?

Now, however, after thinking about it all day. I still can't imagine anyone from our country neighbourhood being so cruel. Yes, we have adopted thirteen feral cats and had all of them "fixed." Maybe, someone got tired of him in their yard but I don't really believe this. What I now believe is it was a pitiful accident. My ninety-year-old mother lives next door. She keeps a rain barrel beside her porch. Perhaps Adolf got scared and jumped off her porch and landed in the rain barrel. He fought his way out, managed to get to our driveway and collapsed and died.

I will talk to my mom about her rain barrel. I don't know how or what killed him for sure. I only know that he was a precious cat in my eyes and I hate to think he suffered.

My tears flow down my face.