I’m voting plastic bag, however I’m not really to be trusted since in my days as a tour guide I experienced the following: As our coach moved slowly through the traffic a couple of the tourists noticed some dogs playing, tugging something between them.
“Ooooh look at those doggies”, says the dear old lady to her friend, “what’s he got there then?” To my horror I realised the two dogs had each end of a cats corpse in their mouths and were tugging it back and forth. I told them it was a plastic bag. It still haunts me.
I had a kamikaze chipmunk run into the side of my tire and get thrown upwards into my wheel well. I was crossing a very narrow bridge originally designed for horse and buggy traffic. There was no other traffic for miles but no room to swerve. There was no doubt in my mind that I’d hit him, or he hit me, depending on your point of view.
Aww, I’m sorry you feel so bad. My mother, a huge animal lover, always thinks that dark lumps on the road are animals. Whenever she’s unsure, it’s a tire or plastic bag. When it’s an animal you can tell. I also have something of a phobia that I’ve run over a child. Everyone tells me you can’t run over a kid without noticing, but I’m never quite convinced. I’ve actually circled the block to make sure that there isn’t a kid lying on the ground.
Just a musing, but I always think that it’s interesting that some people feel sick over having possibly hit an animal, and a few rare others don’t feel bad about having purposefully run over a person.
Yeah. A plastic bag. People have a tendicy to put some gloves or work out clothes in a shopping bag and put them on their car and forget about them. You ran over someones gloves.
Wait a minute, first you say that it was probably a cat but she should get over herself, and then you say I’m narrow-minded for wanting her to feel guilty? I’m a little lost.
I said you said it was probably, not definitely, a cat. And you said this:
Sorry for hijacking, Zsofia. I originally thought he was attacking you unfairly, which is why I said something, but now I think he’s… confused (and, at this point, I might be as well).
Quasimodem, I agree with you that even if it really was a cat, Zsofia couldn’t have done anything different and shouldn’t blame herself. But you’re being WAY more vehement about this than the situation requires. She’s just looking for a little support. Let’s tone down the hostility.
That said, Zsofia, I do think you drove over a plastic bag.
Thanks, all. Whatever happened, I really appreciate the “it’s a plastic bag sentiment”. You’ve pretty much got me convinced. I took another way home tonight, though, just in case. (Trust but verify, in the opposite kind of way.)
Many years ago, a rabbit ran in front of my car at night. From the moment I saw it to the loud “thump” was maybe a second, not enough time to stop. I got out and checked, and it was totally dead. Believe me, I’ll never forget that “thump.” it’s unmistakable.
You are very precious. I hope you know that. Sorry for my harsh words, but if you came home to me with what you wrote, you and I would go to the “scene” of the supposed "crime’, and, if I could, I would do the same as I have tried to do here:
Take you through it and try to make you feel better and ask you to let it go.
It might not make it “right” if it were a plastic bag, but it would always make it “right” knowing you as a very compassionate person. And those too, are a limited resource.
In short, if I were ever to be in a life or death situation, I would want someone like you to take care of me.
