As I drive the county roads and highways through my small section of Texas, I am amazed by all the animal remains left on the roads. Most seem to be on the shoulder or the center stripe. None seem to be engraved into the travel lane, so I am thinking that the animal will crawl to the shoulder where some later, well meaning driver will swerve to put the animal out of its misery, just as the previous driver did the same to try to miss the damn thing in the first place. Anyway, I got my first possum about a week ago on my way to Dallas at about 5:30 in the morning. I caught its back legs with my car at about 75 mph on the two lane black top I was traveling. I really tried to swerve and miss, but by the time I saw it, I had hit it. When I came back over the same road later, the carcass was on the shoulder and had been hit several other times from the looks of things.
Today, going to Texarkana, I have no idea how I missed the two dogs that ran across the highway I was traveling on. They both crossed the highway right in front of me. One made it to the left of my car, the faster one made it to the right. I stomped the brakes, held a straight line, and missed both. (Domesticated animals being out of season on US 82 this month)
So, what is your recent roadkill experience? I was thinking of putting this in the game thread with possums being 1 point, turtles 3 points, armadillos 10, and dogs -10, but that seemed kind of cruel.
Also, if you saw an animal that had been hit, but not killed, would you swerve to run it over?
SSG Schwartz