The autumn always sees a rise in the number of cats killed and injured in road accidents and this year has been no exception.

The darker evenings mean that it is harder to see a cat in the road. Cat's are crepuscular, that is they are naturally most active at dawn and dusk. As the days shorten there is more traffic about when cats are naturally active.

One of several casualties in the last couple of weeks was Pattie. Pattie is a delightful friendly moggie about four years old. Her young owner dotes on her.

Unfortunately from the road safety point of view she is black all over. One evening last week she asked to go out as usual and set off on her usual tour of her surroundings. Usually she is back at bed-time or at the latest early the next morning and mewing to come in. This time she dragged herself home on three legs in the middle of the morning a day and a half later. She was bedraggled and obviously in pain when she moved.

After the car hit her back end she had run under some bushes in a neighbouring garden, and there she had lain until she could find sufficient strength to struggle home. At the surgery I took the history and assessed her injuries. Her owner wisely had not fed her since she came home so I was able to give her an anaesthetic and x-ray her as soon as I had looked at her.

The x-rays showed that she had dislocated her hip and broken the base of her tail. The hip joint was too damaged for the ball to go back into its socket without an operation and the broken tail-base had also bruised the nerves to her bladder. I have repaired her hip, but as I write this I and her and her owners are still in for an anxious wait before we know whether she will get back her bladder control and the movement in her tail.

Pattie was lucky in one respect. At least she was able to get herself home and her owner knew what had happened to her. Too often I see cats that arrive as strays without an owner.

A reflective collar gives motorists a better chance of seeing a cat, especially a dark-coloured cat. A small medallion with you phone number tells the vet that this is a loved and owned cat as does a microchip. Otherwise a vet confronted with a badly injured cat may have to make a nightmare choice between complex and expensive treatment or putting someone's much loved cat to sleep. And if the worst does happen and your cat is killed at least you will be spared days of searching for them.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.