The Cat that Crossed the Road

Last night on my way home from school, I ran over a cat.

There had been horrible traffic getting out of the campus parking lot. There was some sort of event going on. The last light before the traffic cleared turned red as I approached it. So I stopped and sighed. I was anxious to get through and drive faster than 5 mph. When it turned green I accelerated with pent up frustration. Still, it was a busy street and I wasn't going more than 40 mph. It was dark and I was driving on a six lane road. The traffic was moving but there still were many cars around.

I saw the black and white cat jet across the road right as it hit the middle left-turn lane thing. I was in the fast lane and there wasn't much time to react. I swerved--which probably wasn't a good idea considering all the cars around me. I took the risk though because I didn't want to kill a cat. Incidentally, I was waiting to leave a message on BDP's cell phone right as this was all happening. So I saw the cat, shrieked, swerved, felt that sickening bump from my rear passenger tire, then BDP's message beeped and I was "on the air" so to speak. Needless to say, it was an odd message.

I feel bad for the following reasons:

I didn't go back to see if the cat was alright. The reason? There were many cars behind me and it was dark and it was a busy street. If I didn't hit the cat, the cars in the next two lanes probably would have. And I knew the cat wasn't alright, but I didn't know what to do about it...

I swerved to miss it and didn't miss it. Maybe if I hadn't swerved, the cat would be okay??

While I was on a busy street that lined my campus, it also bordered a neighborhood. This cat might have been a pet.

I am sorry, mystery black and white cat. Why did you have to cross the road then? And why did you want to cross the road at all??? There was nothing exciting over there...