Yesterday my neighbors saw something that makes me very angry. It made them very angry as well. We live in a rural area; there is a fair amount of traffic, but not so much that you don't notice it. The neighbors were outside visiting when a dark van with tinted windows drove slowly by and turned into a private cotton field across the road. A middle-aged woman was driving and she quickly rolled down the window and attempted to throw a cat out the window. The cat jumped back in, but she was determined to dump that cat and threw it out the window. When she saw the neighbors had noticed, she got out of the van and tried to act innocent. One neighbor refused to talk to her and went inside his house. The other listened to her excuses disbelievingly. Doesn't that just burn your britches?! How can people be so cruel and irresponsible? What makes them think we want their cat- I have 2 that someone dumped out already! Man, if I had seen that I would given that lady a piece of my mind! You know what I was doing when the neighbors saw this disgraceful act? I was dumping my cat out our black van's window! I had loaded the garbage into the van to take to the dump- we don't have sanitation services here- and unknown to me the cat jumped into the van. As I was pulling out the drive, the cat made itself known. I decided rather than to go back I would just let Tiger ride along with me. He is a sweet, cuddly cat and the company would be pleasant. Evidently, Tiger doesn't like to ride in the car. He began racing madly around the van, jumping into the garbage and searching for a way out. I began to drive more slowly, thinking that if I went all the way to the dump, Tiger would jump out of the van never to be seen again. So I pulled into the cotton field behind our barn to let Tiger out. He was so unnerved by the experience he refused to go out the window and I had to take a couple tries at throwing him out. Instead of running through the field back to the barn, he ran across the road and through the neighbors side field. I could hear them yelling about the woman dumping a cat out and how awful she is. So I walked over to explain; the one neighbor refused to talk to me and went in his house. The other listened to my explanation and smiled knowingly and placatingly. I was distressed that they should think such a thing and went in search of my lost cat. Tiger came home this morning and I apologized to him for the misunderstanding. I will be more careful when taking the garbage out next time. But I will also be more careful before jumping to conclusions next time, as well. What we see is sometimes not what we are seeing.