Ruined rescue

My morning did not go the way I had planned. On my way to work I saw two little eyes gleaming in my headlights from the middle of a very busy road. Five lanes across, two going north, two south, and one turning lane in the middle. There was a cat (alive) in the middle lane and it was not moving. I made a u-turn and stopped next to the kitty to assess the situation. It appeared to have no external injuries, but it wasn't moving away from me and it was panting heavily. I assume it was hit by a car. I pulled out an old sling, picked up the cat, put it in the back of my car, and headed off to the local emergency vet. I really thought the cat couldn't move its hind legs, as it was pretty limp when I picked it up to transfer it to my vehicle. Can I just state again, for the record, that I thought it couldn't move? Yeah, well, I was wrong.

I pulled into the parking spot right in front of the vet's office and opened the back hatch. Damn if that cat didn't jump out of the car and head into the great unknown. This was bad for several reasons--not the least of which being that the cat was clearly injured--but mostly because the parking lot where it escaped is surrounded by another 5-lane road, an off ramp from a highway, and the highway itself. Ugh. I got a flashlight from the main desk attendant and, with his help, looked for the cat until I had searched everywhere I could access. Even dumpsters. No cat. Turns out this particular emergency vet doesn't even take stray animals, so we would have had to go to a different one, but still. I feel terrible. I can only hope the cat was stunned when I picked it up and recovered on the car ride. I hope it made it's way home. There was no collar or tag, so I don't know if it was a stray or a pet, but it seemed to be in good condition. Please send some positive thoughts to that little grey tabby, who is hopefully somewhere in our neighborhood. *sigh*