i had the unfortunate occurance of having to tell a neighbor lady that her cat, casper, was dead.
it had died in my yard attempting to get home after, most likely, being hit by a car on 4th street.
i called animal services to ask whether or not they wanted to pick it up, or if i should bury it.
they said that i should put it in a plastic garbage bag and leave it by the curb and they would be right over to pick him up.
after i put on some surgical gloves, i picked him up -- it looked as though his eyes had collapsed. he was lying in the grass, covered with dew and frost, in a pose that suggested a quick trot.
rachel and i noticed that he had on a collar and were forced with the duty of informing our neighbor that her cat had died.
i let her know that we were terribly sorry about casper and that we had three cats ourselves and generally showed empathy. she said that casper was 20 years old and that he had been blind most of his life. he had been missing for three weeks and that he never wandered as far as our house, a block away, but that he usually just lounged around the front yard.
she called her son -- it was his cat and he came over to bury it.
it was pretty sad.