The Horror of Watching My Dog Attack a Cat

Walking my dog is one of my more cherished activities. It's a chance for me to unwind from the day's stress, get a little fresh air and exercise, and a chance for my dog to get a little "away from home" time. I have a few different routes that I like to take. The neighborhood in which I live is pretty quiet and safe, so there are a lot of walking options. One of my usual routes involves walking along the flood control channel that parallels my neighborhood; Coyote Creek is its official name. Popular myth has it that the channel was so named for the large number of Coyotes that used to wander the area before it was urbanized with tract homes and freeways. Now, the only animal that seems to roam the flood channel in any mass numbers are cat's, both feral cat's and house cat's. And, yesterday evening, my dog, whom I allow to run off-leash in the barren environment of Coyote Creek, soon spotted a small black cat directly in front of our path. And, unfortunately for the cat, the cat was neither very alert nor very fast!

As soon as I realized the reason for my dog's sudden sprint, it was too late for me to intervene in any way. I offered a loud yell and a holler intended to distract my dog and, hopefully, give the cat a chance to flee. My dog wasn't distracted, and the cat didn't flee. And as you can probably imagine, what happened next wasn't pretty. My dog grabbed the cat by the neck and shook it like it were a rag doll. The whole episode lasted probably fifteen or twenty seconds. At the end, the cat lay motionless on the side of the riverbed pathway.