Animal Sightings on the Road
May 22nd, 2008 by omidog
Driving home from work today, I had a very strange experience. I was puttering along, stuck in stop and go traffic as usual, and my eyes were wandering about as I rested my foot on the brake. I looked to my right, and there in plain sight right along side the highway not more than 10 or 15 feet from me was a doe eating from a small tree! I couldn’t believe my eyes. I had to take a second look to make sure I was really seeing this. She was just calmly standing there, munching away on some leaves as the slew of cars slowly crept by, completely undaunted. This is the first time I’ve ever seen a wild deer so closely in the middle of the day. I wish I had my camera with me!
This made me then think about how the only other times I have seen deer by the highway have been when they’ve been killed by a car. It made this sighting bittersweet, because while I was excited to see such a beautiful animal so closely, it also made me sad to realize that this is her home, and we’ve run roads right through it. Even as a beautiful rainbow stretched across the sky between the sun and rain showers during my commute, I couldn’t help but feel a bit sad.
During the rest of the ride, I had my eyes peeled for other animals, but things got worse as I kept driving. I passed by a sweet little raccoon, sprawled out dead in the breakdown lane; and a squirrel, or gopher or groundhog…it was hard to tell exactly what since it was mangled… and this morning I had passed by a squirrel, lifeless in the road. It breaks my heart to see animals that have been hit by cars, so I wanted to post something here to just remind everyone to be extra careful on your commute.
Seeing that deer showed me that it’s not just nighttime when animals are out and about. Even birds can swoop down and be struck mid-flight. Sometimes, animal accidents happen so fast that there’s no way you can stop them. But if we all take a bit more time to keep our eyes alert, and not rush quite so much, maybe that second look will save a life (even yours!).
Safe driving, everyone!
I once hit a jackrabbit when travelling home quite late one night, I was devestated as I felt like I did one of the worst things ever. I actually cried and when I got home my husband was there to help make me feel better, but what about the rabbit? No I could not have helped it as where we used to live was mostly country and mountains and the deer and rabbits, etc. will just out of nowhere be right there. I have had other experiences and one time really said I would not drive anymore as the whole way from work that night was making me feel like the animals were coming out just to taunt me, I had dodged 2 porcupines, 1 raccoon and on the home stretch to our home, had to dodge 3 deer which I was greatful the headlights had shown on their eyes. I even once had a deer jump out at me during the day and with my driver side window down I could hear not just my brakes but the sound from the deer’s hooves as it slid towards my truck before it was able to run off. We have moved into their areas and its terribly sadden me and many others for this fact. And even now with living in a desert area we still see wild animals every now and then and all we can do it seems for that moment is to hope they make it where ever they go safely. But what about our furry sweethearts we have living with us? I lost a cat, a dear loved friend one Thanksgiving morning. My husband went out looking for Curious as he didnt come when I called the night before(yes my cats and dogs all know at night they are to be safely inside with us all)and when he came back I knew in my heart Curious was gone and my heart fell deeply. Curious was a kitten to Shadow whom we also kept as we found them under a rental home once and with me and my animal love couldnt send her back out there but we couldnt keep the whole litter. We tried to find them homes, advertised even with pictures at the local store and post office, no one wants kittens, ever. I had no choice but to take the other one’s to a local human society(and that nearly killed me as I have worked at a humane society before) and cried on the way home as the shelter was over run with cats and kittens, they had hardly any room if any. When taking Shadow to the vet to get a check up and shots and to make plans to get her fixed, turns out she was pregnant. No I could not let the vet kill the tiny kittens and opted to keep Shadow inside with us the entire pregnancy, was a long yet short wait. The night came and she gave birth to 5 kittens, adorable sweet babies indeed. But the sad part is the last kitten wasnt moving and so had to direct my daughter in what to do and we now have Mumbo who will be 3 soon. I called everywhere to find where I could take the kittens and so many places said they were full. I finally got a number of a lady who would take the kittens and keep them till she found homes. So after we bonded with the kittens I literally shoved them to the lady as I couldnt stand a slow goodbye(did this all while at the vets when I took Shadow in to get fixed. So our furry babies went from 2 dogs alone to 2 dogs and 3 cats. Then we moved. I lost my baby Curious who looked after Mumbo as he has had neurological problems ever since we had to help him stay alive but to him life is good. Sorry about the whole story but when I lost Curious due to some type of car or truck running him over I was just devestated I lost my , well it seemed my best friend. No longer would he come say goodnight and then curl up in his very favorite spot on the rocker. I will even slow down to make sure birds in the road get out of the way, some say silly but I say no to that. All animals deserve our kindness while we are driving, and yet even at those times we can not in anyway possible avoid it from hitting them; well we just need to be extra vigilant if at all possible…It could be someone’s furry baby out there and hopefully we can send them along back to their homes to be safe another day..