Buried my cat this morning

[fast306stang]

This isn't a thread to get sympathy and it's not a joke so cat haters try to be serious.
I've had the cat since I adopted her as a rescue kitten from a vets office in CT over 12 years ago, so she was almost 13 and I knew she probably didn't have many years left, but she never lost her appetite and still got around with no noticeable difficulty or pain.
I have been keeping her in the garage at night and let her out Friday AM as usual. Got home 11 hours later and she wasn't around but the landlord had been here all day working under the house on a burst pipe and had his dogs with him.
Friday night came and went and no cat. Saturday AM she wasn't around but she has wandered off for a day before so I didn't think anything of it. Walked the yard and wood line yesterday before dark but didn't see anything out of the ordinary. Get up this AM and stood on the porch waiting for my coffee to brew and still nothing.
About an hour later my brother (who I live with) calls me to come outside. He says 'is that your cat?' I walk over near the pond and find the body of what appears to be my cat but it is so water-logged and decomposed that at first I am not sure. The front of her head was missing and she had maggots moving around there and near her rear. Her body and legs showed no sign of damage, and she wasn't stiff when I wrapped her in an old towel.
I know she was not laying there last night and am not sure that I wouldn't have seen her there this AM. No tracks anywhere around her and we have had some rain here so the ground is soft. I haven't heard coyotes in months and think my brothers dog would bark at a stray dog in the yard. We do have a family of foxes that we see pretty regularly.
So, I assumed if she was sick that I would have found her in the garage. Would a fox or coyote only kill her and not eat her?
Did my brother or the landlord run over her and throw the body in the pond and then something dragged her out? Did one of their dogs kill her and they hid the body?
I don't like the thought that either of them would do that but I am not ready to rule it out at this time.
Any theories?

So sorry for your loss! The circumstances do seem suspect, but I'm not sure you'll ever find out what actually happened. I know it bothers you, it would bother me too. I hope you're able to find some closure.

 

[dcline9163]

Sorry for your loss, a friend like that hurts to lose.

 

[TresMonos]

These questions you have may never be answered and you should not focus on them. They will feed the pain and slow the grieving down.

 

[fattboyzz]

RIP

 

[Just Plain Bill]

I'm sorry about your cat. A lot of guys make jokes about cats but we really have a soft spot for them. At least I do. Never owned a house cat but had many barn and yard cats. My aunt had a house cat that she swore only liked me out of the whole family. Told her it's because cats have good taste in people.

 

[Radar363]

Thanks for the kind words gentlemen.
I know she was just a cat and never really liked anyone but me, not even my youngest son who took care of her for a while.
I guess what bothers me most is not knowing what happened. It would be a lot easier if I had just found her curled up in a box in the garage. I guess I could convince myself that the damage to her head was done post-mortem and that she didn't suffer.
I can say that I took care of her for over a decade and she never went hungry and always had shelter.

 

[testdepth]

13 is pretty old for a cat and you may never know. I would think of it a different way. You gave the cat a loving home for 13yrs of its life and both had companionship for that long. Life could have been much worse for the cat. It's possible the cat died naturally and at least you have a body to bury. We had one cat outside that my wife loved and he would only come to her. He was about 10rys old when he stopped showing up. We looked but never found him in the woods or anywhere else. We assumed he died about 2yrs ago and since then every time my wife sees a tuxedo colored cat she calls out "Azlan" hoping its him. We had another cat that was about 12 when I found him dead in our shed. He was a great tomcat friend who would hunt squirrels with me. No idea what killed him as there was no signs of anything and he wasn't sick. He liked to mess with snakes so maybe he got bit by one. Your a good person and sorry for your loss.

 

[buellbrewer]

sorry for your loss.

 

[crippen]

My cat tried to wonder off and die in a hole under our concrete steps. I got a small demo hammer and opened up a spot big enough for me to get him out of. I only mention it to say that cats will wonder off and hide to die. Maybe yours wondered off and found a spot. Sorry for your loss!

 

[rbalan]

My cat tried to wonder off and die in a hole under our concrete steps. I got a small demo hammer and opened up a spot big enough for me to get him out of. I only mention it to say that cats will wonder off and hide to die. Maybe yours wondered off and found a spot. Sorry for your loss!

I was going to post this as well. I wonder why they do this, maybe they get disoriented? Nonetheless I feel for you, love my pets.