[AT] Shop cat

[Billy Hood]

I was welding a cracked block in G JD yesterday when a situation developed.  My daughter had left her cat with us for two weeks and it has taken up residence in my shop--I sure am not letting it into the house as many of you may know cats are not my favorite animal.  I had kicked it out of the way several times, careful not to leave a scar--my daughter had threatened me if I hurt her cat.  She knows her father well.  

About lunch, I was through welding and shut the welding rod oven/storage door and checked that the pilot light was on and went to lunch.  After noon, I worked on my skid loader in the barn and had not thought about the flea bitten feline.  Went into the shop later and a neighbor came by to borrow some soapstone, which is also kept in the rod oven for storage.  Upon opening the oven, I saw a damp, prostrate' sorry looking' sad and still cat.  I drug it out and placed it on the bench and thought I felt a pulse under the front elbow.

I called Steve, my large animal vet friend, and explained my situation.  I  am 30 minutes or more from the vet clinic.  Steve really does not like cats any more than I, and he was trying to help.  He asked if I had any gasoline in the shop and when I affirmed he said cats are very sensitive to gasoline.  He instructed me to put a couple of drops of gas on the cat's tongue and see it it revived it.  He stayed on the phone line to see if the remedy worked.  

I dropped a little more than 3 drops on the cat's tongue and it immediately started running round and round the shop and up the walls,  It crapped on the metal bench, urinated on the shop fridge and was squalling like a stuck pig under a gate.  About the tenth round of the shop, it fell off of the top of a tractor, graveyard dead.  I still had Steve on the phone and I asked him "recon what happened".  

His reply was short and sweet--"Guess she just ran out of gas".

Bear

Yesterday was April 1