And time marches on...
Well, I finally managed to catch the mean orange and white tabby that's been creating trouble. No tears this time, but my God, it reminded me of the thread on how hard raccoons are to kill!
I dropped it on the spot with what appeared to be a spine shot, just fell there and laid still. When I finished putting away the gun and putting on shoes, I got over there with the shovel and the thing was still alive! It took two more subsonic 22lr rounds to the head and was still looking at me and breathing, so I just got fed up and fetched my CZ-75B. One 147gr. HP to the chest cavity and it gave up the ghost immediately.
So what have we learned? Well, I learned that the initial process of rationalization and adjustment is painful and difficult, but once that's happened it becomes a little easier. I still felt bad for it, especially since it was suffering at first, but I've been MAD at this cat for quite a while, so maybe that helped. I've learned that even if your gun has the power, SHOT PLACEMENT is KING! If that first shot had been heart/lungs, it might not have dropped immediately, but it surely would've been dead quicker and suffered less. That means I need to get ahold of a cat anatomy chart to make sure I'm pointing at the right place. It makes me look forward to having a 357 rifle I can use with subsonic loads, I'm pretty sure the cat wouldn't have taken more than two shots of 158gr. lead at 900fps.