Dog Lovers, avert your eyes

Today I ran over a dog. I'm devastated. Never in my driving career have I hit an animal, and it was very tragic and sad.





I was coming home from Addie's piano lesson this afternoon. As I was going on 100 East a dog ran out in front of me, I slowed down so as not to hit it, and suddenly it doubled back in front of me and I couldn't stop. There were two sickening thumps as I ran it over, and then I could hear the dog's piercing yelping as it lay there in pain. There was a family sitting in the front yard of the house I was in front of, and as I stopped my car and started crying, the father/husband of the family immediately came over to talk me down off the ledge he could see I was on. The dog got up (thankfully, although it clearly had a broken or crushed hind leg), and hobbled off, still yelping. I asked through my tears if it was this family's dog, and the father/husband said no, it belonged to the family across the street. I locked my car doors since Addie was still in the car and I didn't want to take her out on the busy street, and headed across the street. This nice father/husband walked with me, assuring me there was nothing I could have done. I knocked on the door to the owner's house, and told the mother/wife what I had done. She felt badly because she had just been out in the back yard hollering for the dog who had gotten out. She also obviously felt badly that I was so upset. The father/husband assured the owner that there was no way I could have avoided the dog. The owner called for her husband and while he tried to console me, the female owner went to get the dog. Both owners assured me it wasn't my fault, this is the risk of living on such a busy street with no fence, and told me to go on home and be safe. I just felt so badly, not only for hitting and injuring the little dog, but also because they will probably have to put the dog down, or go to some expense to get him fixed up.





If anyone ever hit my dog who was wandering in the street, I wouldn't want them to fret and stew about it, and I'm sure these people don't want me to fret and stew either. Addie prayed for the little dog tonight, and I, too, hope that somehow it will all be alright.