Prayers for you to be strong and peaceful during this difficult episode. :hug1:
I am guessing that you probably did not ‘fail’ your creature, unless you actually did something to cause the accident; otherwise, that’s just what it is, an accident. It happens sometimes.
I don’t want to give you any false hope, but cats are very resilient.
I don’t know if you want to hear them right now or not, but I could tell you some Resilient Cat stories just in case?
When my mother was a child, the family dog found a nest of kittens and only one survived. The kitten appeared to have a broken neck, but instead of being paralyzed, he just healed a little sideways; she called him her “swan” and he became a very good pet for her.
My sister was riding with her husband and they saw a black cat lying by the side of the road; he had been struck by a car and appeared to be dead. But as they passed, my brother-in-law noticed the cat raise its head, so they turned around and got it, and a vet came and took care of the cat and wouldn’t charge them for the service. The vet let them keep the cat when no owner was traced after a certain period of time.