My first roadkill
Driving home in the dark through oft times wooded areas is always a little nerve racking for me. I grip the steering wheel more firmly, my eyes darting to the sides of the road, looking for that ghostly white glare. The glare that tells you an animal is about to run away from you, or jump in front of your car.
I returned home from a focus group last night in such conditions. Add to that a very windy road and I was even more careful. I went five miles under the speed limit, slowing down around each curve. I was sighing with a bit of relief as I rounded what would be my last wooded curve before coming to a fairly well trafficked intersection. Suddenly I saw a dark shadow dart into the road and the car jarred heavily as it rolled over something that was definitely bigger than a squirrel. It had happened so fast I didn’t even have time to think about putting on my breaks.
I found a spot down the road to turn around and driving very slowly back up the road I saw my victim. It’s eyes glared white in my headlights. A large raccoon lay lifeless on the side of the road. I gasped and was actually surprised when tears came straight to my eyes. I felt an overwhelming desire to pull over and help it. But I knew it was too late. I hope it never happens again. I wish animals knew to stay away from streets. I see smashed squirrels all over the roads out here.
Oh, and it’s one thing to run over them on accident and entirely another to do it on purpose. In my life I’ve seen two dogs get run over on purpose and I’ve rarely felt such anger towards people. My neighbors darling dog Lucy was one of them. I saw it happen, heard her yelping and didn’t know what to do. My friend ran out at that moment to her dog and carried her and her broken body inside the house. Amazingly she lived, but she was never quite the same afterward. I wish all people would treat animals kindly.
:heart: 
Well its been 17 days since my son has swallowed his quarter and not out yet. We...
Oh how sad… I see roadkill all of the time too but thankfully have never hit anything myself. I’m sorry that it happened to fast like that where you didn’t even have time to react. I can’t imagine why anyone would hit an animal on purpose, but I’m sure they do - people can be so cruel sometimes for just no reason at all. It’s too bad.
My first roadkill was a raccoon, too. It was a baby, and I’ll never forget seeing Mama raccoon going back and trying to nudge it to get it up and moving again. So sad.
Kim - A baby raccoon! That’s so sad. I was thinking last night that I really hoped it hadn’t been a mama with babies.
Susan - Yikes! You’ve got lots of animal horror stories.
The only other time I’ve come close to hitting something was when a deer jumped into the road on a winter night. Luckily we had been hit by an ice storm and I was already going 15 miles an hour. I just missed it.
I saw a large dog get ran over when I was about 13. It happened right in front of me as I was waiting for the school bus, and I had a side view of it going under the truck. It all happened in slow motion. It was horrible.
But it didn’t happen on purpose—the dog had been chasing a much smaller dog and just jumped out into the street right in front of the truck. I felt so bad for the driver. He immediately stopped, but the dog’s back was broken. It was trying to get up and it couldn’t.
My dad accidentally killed a couple of our dogs—at different times. They had a habit of falling asleep under his truck. It was horrible.
I don’t think I’ve ever hit an animal while driving. Once my brother and I drove from Seattle to upstate New York and we counted the roadkill we saw along the way. The final tally was something like 225. There was a stretch through Pennsylvania where the tally jumped from 75 to 150.
Another time, my brother almost hit a horse, in the middle of a highway on a foggy night. But I’ve rambled on enough!
Wow - what a thought-provoking post!
Unfortunately, I killed 1 or 2 of our kittens many years ago. They wouldn’t stay out from under our car. I would crawl under the car and get them out and then before I could leave, they’d be back under the car.
I didn’t know that happened to Lucy! Who ran her over?
My Dad backed over one of our cats “Taffy” one morning on his way to work. Since my siblings and I were still very young, my parents decided to fib about how she really died. They told us that a “bad guy” ran her over, and that she heroically used the last of her strength to crawl back up to our yard where she died peacefully among the petunias. Ha ha, then they took us to Chuck E. Cheese’s so we would forget about whole thing.
I remember a deer jumping in front of me, hitting the hood and sliding up and over the windshield. It was so shocking and sad - but it’s a good thing I didn’t stop. Once I reached my destination, I couldn’t start my car again.
I wish they knew to stay away from roads too.
ThriftyKaren Our cats liked to nap under our car too. But thankfully they always scrambled to get out from underneath when they heard us getting in.
Michelle Okay, how come I never knew that? That is freaking hilarious and just wrong, on so many levels. :)
Corrie -Wow, that would have been so freaky!