Poor bugger. Not really bright, running into traffic like that.
What is it rattling around in a squirrel’s skull that says “hey, I’ll bet I can time my little constitutional just right and avoid being crushed by the wheels of a half-ton vehicle”? Whatever it is, it’s stronger than your average squirrel’s survival instinct. He ran right under my front left tire. I closed my eyes, but sure enough, felt the little thump through my steering wheel.
That was bad enough, but when I checked my rear view mirror, it wasn’t dead. I had to stop at the intersection, so I got to watch it twitch and flop around for ten seconds before it finally expired. It’s a busy street, or I would have pulled over and seen if I could do anything (what? pick up a flea infested plague carrying vermin and take it to a vet and pay the bill with what money? Jump up and down on its skull and “put it out of its misery”? Neither of these seemed like viable options.)
And what sucks is that the only other time I’ve hit an animal (a cat, it died, and I carried it back to its owner and cried for half an hour afterward), I learned that dodging and weaving or braking doesn’t help. I thought I was giving the cat an opportunity to get across the road, it couldn’t figure out what I was doing, and ran right under my back tire. I figured this time if I went straight without accelerating or braking, the squirrel would figure out when to time its dash. No such luck.
You know, I eat meat with glee. I wear leather on an everyday basis. But when it comes to cute little critters, even vermin, I am a complete and total softie. And while I can’t figure out anything I could have done differently, I still feel guilty. Poor little bugger. It doesn’t help that this is the time of year the streets are littered with squirrel au pancake, since it just means that I’m not alone. Thank heavens I didn’t have my friend’s kids in the car with me.
Hit a wild hare once. It was a dark country road and I didn’t see the poor bastard until the last fraction of a second. The thud under the car was much louder than I’d ever imagined it would be. Checked in the morning for bits of fur and blood but fortunately didn’t find any.
I hit a squirrel once. He nearly made it back to the tree, too, the little bastard - I had to chase him across the median, up a curb and over three lawns before I finally got him.
I shouldn’t have to mention I’m kidding, but I will anyway.
Dang nab it Donor! Next time use the shotgun, boy. That’s why it’s sittin’ on the gun rack on the back of the truck cab. Them neighbours is gonna call the pow-lice cuz’n you done torn up they’s lawn agin.
I have a pickup truck with a grill-guard. This grill-guard has a honeycomb mesh welded between the primary members - it looks good, and is functional - VERY functional.
I was traveling a 2-lane highway at night at 60mph when a cottontail rabbit jumped out in front of me. If you’ve ever seen a frightened rabbit, you know they often will jump - straight up. This poor critter jumped straight up in front of me - and my honeycomb-mesh grill-guard. That little rabbit hit that guard and bounced like a shuttlecock on a badminton racquet, complete with “fwonnngggg” sound effect. Disturbing, it was…
I hit my first animal just last week. I was driving back from work, and a pheasant (I can only assume this ios what is was) started to walk across the road. I could do nothing but keep going straight and hope he turned around…nope, he got up to fly away in terror…but flew right iinto* my left front wheel. Christ, if you can fly, why are you walking across the road? Stupid bird…
If you get one with the grill or the differential or the oil pan they’re still good to eat. If you crush it with a tire don’t bother stopping for the remains.
Phouka, that stinks, but how nice of you to feel bad at least?
There are always dead squirrells on my work route and I feel so bad for them. I have not hit one yet and I keep my eyes peeled trying to avoid them.
I accidentally hit a beautiful big butterfly last week and when I stopped a few miles later it fell off my grill and was still trying to fly with one wing. I almost cried and made my guy come “take care of it”.
I had a similar experience on the Blue Ridge Parkway. I saw the little bird (I thought it was a baby turkey but someone told me that it was probably a pheasant) on the road and was slowing down enough that it could cross. But then, it turns to face me and runs directly at my left front tire! I tried stopping, but didn’t have the braking distance I needed. So I heard/felt the feathery thump under my front tire.
Squirrels, racoons, possums, armadillos… it’s a regular critter obstacle course on the roads around here. ACBG (my name for the current squeeze for those not paying attention) ran over a possum on his way out to my house Tuesday night. He said he would’ve stopped and picked it up but possum’s really more of a cold weather food. I think I’m gonna fall in love to spite myself.
Well. . .didn’t hit him so much as we saw him on the side of the road eating grass, so we stopped in the truck, pumped up a pellet gun 10 times and shot him in the chest.
Hit an armidillo (sp? - possum on the half-shell) coming back from Fort Benning one dark rainy night. Cried all the way home, even tho they have to be one of the ugliest creatures Og ever created. One of my friends says that armidillos are proof that Og has a sense of humor.
I have proof that doves are made up of just air and feathers. One flew right into the right front of my car once and simply exploded. Rather like a pierced balloon. I could detect no remains other than wafting fluff.
Seriously, I think I’d have a breakdown if I ever hit someone’s pet. Squirrels, meh, not pleasant but I probably wouldn’t lose any sleep.
A couple of months ago a bird decided to go under my car. I could sense a small thud from the undercarriage. I looked in the rearview and all I saw was a small mushroom cloud of feathers - no bird at all. I even looked under the car after I stopped and I still have no idea where the thing went.
I’m with ya. A few years back I saw another car hit a tree rat and it was flopping around in its death throes and I just didn’t know what to do. Do I turn around and go back and run over it to put it out of its misery? It was clear it wasn’t going to live… In the end I did nothing, but I was miserable all night.
I killed a groundhog last Tuesday. I came around a curve, he looked up, I swerved, he ran (unfortunately, the same direction I served), and dead hog in the middle of the road. I believe he hit the oil pan or some other under-carriage bit, as he was big enough that if I had run over him with one of my wheels I could have easily lost control. I didn’t feel too bad about it though, as I believe a case could be made even to a Jainist that groundhogs are really living creatures, but rather 30 pounds of dumb in a 15-pound bag.
Not done by me, but the most over-the-top road-squishage I’ve ever seen was bringing a buddy back to base in Georgia (and damn me if I can’t remember the name of the base right now - somewhere relatively close to Savannah).
At any rate, they train tank drivers there, and the tanks cross the main road leading to the base. So there were fuzzy pancakes everywhere. Armadillos completely flattened like enormous silver dollars, and even the fresh haunch of a deer. Just the haunch, nothing else.
When I was young and foolished and worked at the NRC in Ottawa, we would drive along the Aviation Parkway every morning to get to work. My coworker and I kept encountering this squirrel, right where the marina is. The bugger would play chicken with us, I swear.
After a couple of weeks of this song and dance, we finally ran Nutty over.
We felt bad, but actually relieved that the little bugger would bug us no more.
That’d be Ft. Stewart probably, or Hunter Army Airfield if in Savannah. That’s where I discovered two things about armadillos. 1) They jump straight up when startled, about as high as the headlight on a 1990 Nissan pickup, 2) they crunch like giant eggs when you run over 'em. Nasty, NASTY creatures…but still kinda cute.
