Melissa - I am so sorry that this happened to you, and it did happen to you, you didn't do anything to hurt this cat. You stopped, very many do not, and you tried. I'm willing to bet that if he'd survived the bump you would have rushed him off to the emergency vet, frantically worrying about how you were going to find the funds to treat him. His owner is to blame, and fate.

It's my worst nightmare, worrying about hitting an animal, especially a cat. I did have a mallard fly into my windscreen, shattering it completely, many summers ago. I spent hours and hours, all the time crying, scrambling through brush trying to find that bird but I never did. For many, many months afterwards I blamed myself for driving 2 miles an hour over the speed limit - it was a highway. If I'd been driving at exactly the speed limit, chances are that it would have cleared my car.

Forgive yourself.