I don’t think he saw it coming.

Before I get to the back story… I’m so sad with an overwhelmingly heavy, broken heart… we just lost one of our Just Your Fur Baby mascots and the BEST, coolest, most chill and lovey cat I’ve ever had. And I’ve had 2 kick ass cats in my adult life.

We helped Bear cross the rainbow bridge Thursday, November 17, 2022, at 4:43pm… I’ll never replace this part of my heart. R.I.P Bear-Bear… reunite with your brother Biddy and we’ll see you both later… xoxox
The back story begins below…

This is not an easy thing to write. You know when you live in a neighborhood and everyone knows you’re fur babies, you know their fur babies and everyone watches out for one another? That’s our neighborhood too. Many of our neighbors watch for our cat on the front porch when they go for walks. Everyone loves him… and he is SUPER sweet and chill.

Now, just like the rest of our area, it keeps growing. We have 3 new communities within 1 block in each direction of us. Over 100 homes in all. Why am I sharing this?

Last night (Tue, 11/15), I decided I wanted to go to be a bit early and just relax until I fall asleep. So, like I do every night, I let the dog out to pee (potty time for ni-night) and I let the cat out to pee before he comes in for the night. He’s usually gone about 5-10 minutes cuz he dislikes the freezing temps. That night was different. I’ll keep this as short as I can…

Bear (our one-eyed, 15 yo cat) went out and not even 5 minutes later, my husband comes running thru the front door yelling “Bear got attacked by a dog! There’s blood!” It hits me that he said DOG. Not racoon. Not coyote. But DOG. So, I grabbed a towel ran out the front door to the sidewalk and around the corner - about 30 steps away. Sure enough, there was Bear hiding between a bush and a rock - panting and wheezing - and not moving. I scooped him up in the towel and brought him into the laundry room to assess the damage. Blood - yes. Mangled looking leg - yes. Gurgling when breathing - yes. We loaded into the car and took off for the vet clinic near us that has emergency pet services. We ended up there for about 3 hours waiting for some kind of miracle news.

Again, you might ask why am I telling you this? It’s because the dog that had my cat in his mouth - and my husband saw it. A man was out at 9pm walking his dog (pitbull). My husband didn’t recognize either of them. The guy was pounding on his dog yelling for him to let go. Between the time when my husband came back into the house to get me and we returned to the scene, the man and his dog were gone.

Now… These were my thoughts at the time this happened…
If my dog attacked someone’s cat, you better believe I would be at your door the next day to ask how your cat is. This guy hasn’t shown up. I can’t even comprehend this. But, to not even stop by and see how Bear is, apologize for his dog’s behavior, or ask if there’s anything he can do to help… that’s messed up. And my cat is in a cage, hooked up to an IV getting many hard-core medications to keep him comfortable because the damage is painful to him.

Puncture to the lungs; 2 broken ribs (left side); messed up leg likely has nerve damage (right front that we know of) - I thought for sure it was broken it was so mangled; and the trauma and shock he’s had in his peaceful, chill, lazy life. He’s going to have to stay another night because he can’t take oral meds yet and he’s very uncomfortable. I try to keep myself from thinking of how much worse it could have been. I STILL can’t believe this happened. And to Bear. Everyone in the neighborhood loves him and looks out for him.

UPDATE: Here’s where we are today:
The man and his dog walked past our house Friday morning as we worked from home and spotted him out our window. My husband grabbed his jacket and ran to catch up with him. They talked in the street behind our home. In short… The guy feels horrible. In fact, he called animal control himself when it happened. But he didn’t know where we lived. He just knows that my husband showed up that night, but not sure from where. In the end, this guys who lives in the community behind us asked how he could help and my husband mentioned our vet bill. He asked if he could pay half because he feels so horrible. He also added that he’s walked by our cat several times and his dog has never paid any mind to him. So, we’re not sure what was different this time. But I’m guessing the dog got spooked and reacted and Bear likely didn’t see it coming.

Many people on NextDoor, Facebook and Instagram have shared their support to us. For that, we are extremely grateful. Thank you so much… #RIPBear

If you find yourself in need of emergency vet services, there’s only 1 open 24 hours in Vancouver, WA that I know of. But here are a few other pet hospital links for our area:

Columbia River Veterinary Specialists - (Open 24 hrs) 88th & Andresen near Costco
St. Francis Animal Hospital - (8am-8pm) 503 & Fourth Plain behind Bi-Mart
Evergreen Animal Hospital - (7:30am-6pm) 78th near Hwy 99