Recently I read a ‘Letter to the Editor’ in my local newspaper. In it a woman said as she was approaching her home she was horrified to see her little dog, obviously dead from being struck by a car, in a pile on the side of the street.
She immediately went into an hysterical tirade accusing the driver of being an heartless monster . ‘How could you run over my sweet little dog and just leave her there to die? I can’t stop crying when I think of how my beautiful little pet was so badly hurt and the pain she must have been feeling. You could have at least stopped and took her to a vet, or tried to contact me. That’s what I would have done. But then again I am a human being who cares about God’s creatures while you must be some sort of psycho who runs over little dogs and leaves them there to suffer and die.’
On and on she goes. Bewailing the death of her pooch and spitting venom at the person who ran her over.
Now you probably would expect me to feel sorry for her loss but the more I read, the angrier I got at the dog owner.
Why?
Because I ran over and killed a dog once.
It was many years ago. I was working for a campground way out in the boonies and traveled through miles and miles of farmland to get there.
On my way to work one morning, on one of those long stretches of empty road, a little dog bolts out from the brush, faces my car head-on and begins to bark as if challenging it.
I slam on the brakes.
I’m doing the speed limit but there is no way the car can stop in time.
My heart jumps into my throat. I know that dog won’t survive unless he has the sense to lay down and let the car pass over him.
No such luck.
The car stops, I open the door, hear a gurgling moan. I run to where the dog lies. He shudders momentarily and dies in a pool of blood.
I can’t begin to describe how terrible I felt as I looked down at the poor, little foolish dog. I searched for the dog’s owner. There is no one around. The only structure is a barn about 1/4 mile inside the farm land with no road access.
So I pull the dog to the side of the road and notice he has a collar but no tags or license. I head off for the barn and when I reach it notice that it’s closed and locked. There are no other nearby structures, just farmland and the buildings of the campground where I work. It’s off season so I know the dog doesn’t belong to a camper.
I get back in my car and drive to work. When I arrive I go to my office and phone the Department of Public Works and advise them that there is a dead dog on the side of the road.
I don’t mention that I was the one who ran him over.
I continued to feel terrible then stopped when I realized that dog’s owner was the one responsible for that dog’s death. Not me. I was driving the speed limit, my car had been inspected and passed. My driver’s license was current and had no points. Plus, I had a dog of my own that I kept in an enclosed fenced area. My dog had a license, name, up to date med tags and my address. My dog was leashed when I let him outside.
So as I continued to read this woman’s rant about the driver who hit her dog, I was sorely tempted to look her up, call her and ask her why was the dog in the street in the first place? How did he get out of the house or back yard? Did you let him out to do his business and forget to let him back in before you left? And how do you know the driver didn’t try to contact you? Or that the dog suffered and hadn’t been killed instantly, you weren’t there.
But I didn’t do it. I’m not the type to rub salt into someone’s wounds
Here’s a note to anybody who owns a pet. If you let you pet have free reign to come and go as he or she pleases, REMEMBER, once your pet is out in the wild, the laws of the jungle apply. How many squirrels, woodchucks, raccoons, skunks, deer and even moose are killed by cars every day? How many are killed by predators? Shot by hunters? Get caught in traps? Get attacked by rabid animals? Fall off cliffs, drown?
You see them on the side of the road all the time.
So I propose a pact between car drivers and pet owners. You keep your pets off the streets and we won’t drive our cars in your enclosed back yards.
Sorry that I haven't been posting twice a week as I usually do but I have been very busy getting the sequel, Noon 2 The Resurgence ready for publication. In the meantime, why not download the original, Noon The Rise to Power to your electronic device? It's received eight 5 star reviews, is only $2.99 (less than the cost of a Big Mac) and comes with a money back guarantee if you don't like it (Sorry, US residents only) It's Ari Publishing's best seller and there's just enough time left to read it before the sequel is released. So why not give it a try? Click on the cover on the slide show above and download. Seriously, you will not be disappointed.
