I hit a dog with my car this morning ...

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Since I know what most everyone’s primary concern will be: the dog and I were both a bit shaken, but I think we’ll be OK.

Fortunately, I saw him early, and recognized the look in his eye. This was a very large canine; he’d probably successfully caught and buried a Honda Fit last week, and figured my Taurus wagon would make a great trophy. I was already braking when he jumped out in front of me, but the impact still felt jarring. I was sure I’d run him over, but he popped back up a second or two later and ran back into his yard. I pulled into the driveway & was able to rouse his owners, who rousted him from his hiding place & checked him over. No obvious signs of damage, thank goodness. ‘Rocky’ has a history of car chasing, I was told, which is why they keep him tied up–but he somehow managed to slip his leash.

My wife told me they were probably surprised I stopped. I was a bit surprised to hear that many people wouldn’t … I can’t imagine how someone could just drive off after hitting someone’s pet. But that’s apparently common behavior. :frowning:

2

Whew! Good thing it wasn’t worse. I would feel so bad. You’re a good guy for stopping.

3

Whew! I came in here cringing but I had to know. The guy who hit my dog when I was three years old didn’t stop.

4

I think many people don’t realize that it has happened, or are afraid the animal will bite if they attempt to help, or are just assholes.

Good on you for taking the time to find out if the animal was okay.

5

Thank you for stopping to let the owners know! Glad to hear no harm was done.

6

Glad he’s okay. I hope that your use of “rouse” doesn’t mean his family was asleep while he was tied up outside. That’s a formula for further trouble.

Is it cynical of me to say that I doubt people are evenly distributed among those three categories? :wink:

7

Huh.

I ran right over my neighbor’s cat last month.

Mr. Horseshoe was standing at the front door waving goodbye to me and saw the whole thing. He said my wheel went right over the cat’s back leg.

We knew whose cat it was and nobody was home at that house, so we corralled the cat (after using the hose to flush him out of some shrubbery) and bundled him into a carrier to take to our vet.

The cat was FINE. I thought for sure I’d ruptured his bladder, shattered his hips - figured absolute best case scenario the leg would be broken.

But no - nothing. Got the cat X-rayed and everything. Totally clean bill of health. Even left the damn thing overnight for observation at the vet’s.

So it DOES happen, **SCSimmons **- sometimes you can hit 'em just right, I guess.
When we got home from the vet … STILL no one was home at the neighbor’s house. (Why, yes - she DOES leave her cats out all the time, even overnight. Stupid neighbor.)

The other Shoe and I agonized over it for a while, and then decided: to not tell her. We simply released the cat, who had only a slight limp anyway, and hoped that maybe his disappearance would teach her to bring them in when she’s gone.

At a minimum, I hope he learned to stay out of our damn yard - that cat was passed out asleep under my car, and I’d only been home maybe an hour, for lunch. I had time to turn on the ignition, wave goodbye to Mr. Horseshoe, put down the parking brake lever, rearrange my purse which was on the gearstick, wave goodbye again, shift out of P into R … in all that time, the cat just slept. Dumb cat. But lucky cat!

8

Once a dog hit my car (yep, he hit me, not the other way around). I was driving down a residential street with cars parked along the street on both sides. Suddently I heard a loud THUMP from my passenger side door. I got out to find a very dazed looking retriever. I never saw him coming. Evidently he had run out from between two parked cars. His owner had been walking him, and the dog managed to jerk the leash out of his hands and took off. The dog was fine, though he was very lucky he didn’t run out into the street a few seconds sooner.

9

I will again commend you for taking the time to meet with the owners.

That’s a great thing you did.

10

Well, I didn’t walk into the house and find them in their beds, so I can’t really say. But it took about 3-4 minutes to get someone to answer the door …

Actually, I doubt they had a lot of choice in sleeping arrangements for the pets. They had two very large dogs and a fairly small house. I imagine these dogs eat, sleep, and play outdoors.

11

Motorcycle cop in France at the Tour, killed a dog the other day, the crashing bike hurt two people-breaking one’s leg.

12

Unless there’s been another motorcycle accident on the tour, that wasn’t a dog; it was a person.

13

Not a dog or other critter; I scuffed some paint on a parked car a month ago. I waited around a bit for the driver, no show. Left a note and went about my business; a half hour later, the car and note were still there. I could have been a dick and taken the note when I left, but I called my agent instead and started the claim.

The lady was dumbfounded to find the note, make 2 calls, and her car was already taken care of.

14

It’s amazing how many people don’t seem to stop, or expect anyone else to do so. I’ve been fortunate enough not to hit anything alive, but I knocked someone’s wing mirror off the other day on a narrow road. As it happened, the owner was right there and saw me do it. He expressed amazement that I had actually stopped (and was running back towards the parked car going “oh fuck oh fuck” - I can’t afford wing mirrors on expensive cars!). If he hadn’t been there I was going to leave my details. As it was, it turned out his wing mirrors were getting broken all the time, so he’d had those ones fitted that knock off easily and just clip back on. But he and his friend were both astonished that I’d pulled over instead of just driving on after potentially causing seriously expensive damage to his BMW.