GODALMIGHTY a huge dog ran right out in front of me and I killed the dang thing! Do you know how bad that feels? I stopped and pulled him off the road then felt for a collar...none. This happened on our country road and it was late but I tryed a couple of the nearest houses but no one would answer the door.

question... What if the dog was still alive and snapped at you when you tryed to help it?

Anyone had this problem of hitting animals and what did you do?....Kirk

-- Anonymous, December 03, 2002

Answers

Sorry guy, I have hit a few animals and you DO feel guilty about it. It sounds like the animal you hit died pretty quickly, though, and if you did nothing malicious (like purposely steering at the animal TRYING to hit it), then you did nothing wrong.

Basically, the only animal I stopped for was one I could see in the rear view mirror. It was a small dog, and I basically rolled it over underneath the car. After pulling over, and walking towards the animal, the animal jumped up and ran away, limping from it's rear leg, howling into a yard and beyond, where I lost sight of it. I didn't pursue it - pretty cowardly of me, eh?

You did all that you could do, even tried to find the owner. IMO, you have done nothing wrong.

Actually, your question about a wounded animal acutally happened to a friend of mine when we were at a school bus stop, waiting for the bus, when a cat got hit at the intersection. After the strike, my friend ran into the now empty intersection and tried to retrieve the cat, which was writhing in pain. The cat scratched the daylights out of her, she bore a couple of scars for that one.

If I were you, I'd let it go - you can't turn back the clock. I hope the rest of your week goes much better - take care.

-- Anonymous, December 03, 2002

We hit a cat once, Kirk. Same scenario as yours...country road and no houses nearby. The cat was just barely alive and snarling at us so we assumed that she was a feral cat. She died shortly after we stopped. We carried her off the road into the woods and buried her as best we could...without a shovel. Worse thing is that she was pregnant!! About 6 wks along we guessed :-(.

Best thing to do with a snapping dog when you're trying to help it is to make a quick figure eight muzzle with a sock or something else that's easy on the nose. We've done that in the past with a stray dog that we pulled quills out of!!

Don't beat yourself up over it...it wasn't your fault!!!

-- Anonymous, December 03, 2002

I gotta tell ya J.R. I was a little concerned, feeling around this dogs neck that he'd jump up and grab me by my throat!!!! Ha!

Very good idea about the sock muzzle thing Marcia! .....kirk

-- Anonymous, December 04, 2002