One day when I was walking to the mailbox, in the ditch parallel to the road, there was this dead cat. It had been hit by a car, and must have been flung into the ditch by the force of the impact. But there was only half of the cat, and I could not find the other half. Instead, just behind the front legs, was nothing but a mass of wormlike, rotted red flesh, indistinguishable from any semblance of its former shape. The cats eyes were open and glassy, and its tongue was swollen and protruded obscenely from its partially opened mouth.