Man calls for traffic calming measures after cat injured by car

A MAN whose cat was injured after being hit by a car has called for drivers in the village to “slow down”.

Charlie Longshaw, 24, said his four-year-old orange cat Loki suffered a broken femur after escaping from his house in Hemphill Place on Wednesday night last week.

Mr Longshaw, who works in adult social services at Reading Borough Council, believes his cat was struck by a car on Kennylands Road after he was found limping on Thursday morning.

He said: “He had broken his leg, was bruised and battered and was cut on his face. He was hiding behind the bins because he couldn’t jump back over our fence. He was dragging his leg behind, so I knew straight away it was broken. He was very much in shock, I’m surprised he survived really.”

Mr Longshaw took Loki to Cherry Orchard Vets, where he spent £3,500 to avoid having to amputate Loki’s left leg. After staying at the vets overnight, where he had a plate inserted in his femur to assist his recovery, Loki returned home on Friday evening.

He is now on cage rest for the next six to eight weeks.

Mr Longshaw said: “They made him comfortable at first and did X-rays, which showed it was a complete break.

“He’s not allowed to walk on it, run on it or go up the stairs so he’s confined to the cage.

“We can get him out and have a cuddle with him, but he wants to walk around.

“There is a worry now that an infection could get into the bone where it’s broken where they put the plate in so he’s on antibiotics and painkillers.

“There was talk of amputation — that was cheaper — but he’s young and there was no way we would do that so we paid the bill.”

Mr Longshaw has called for drivers in the village to “stick to the speed limit” to minimise the risk posed to both pets and young children.

He said traffic-calming measures, such as speed bumps or speed cameras, should be implemented to make people “think twice” about speeding.

The speed limit on Kennylands Road was reduced from 30mph to 20mph in 2022.

Mr Longshaw said: “There are always speeding cars out there. If you’re going 20mph you’ve always got someone in your boot following you up the road.

“There is always the community speed watch, we see them there and they do monitor it but it is a very wide road and there are always cars going faster than 20mph.

“All you’ve got to do is spend an evening here and you’ll hear them all the time going up and down the road, even the big lorries are guilty of it.

“We live within the radius of two schools and there are always kids about in summer and the holidays and people still just go excessive speeds.

“They could put in speed bumps or a speed camera. I know the police are worn thin, so it might make people think twice about speeding.”