Yesterday I left work to attend a 3 hour class on the new USDA rules for the school breakfast/lunch program. The day went smooth and the class was enlightening, kind of nice to actually talk to one’s peers and after it was over I headed home.
I had just driven by the dairy with the baby calves in pens that my first husband said was to keep them lean so people could eat tender veal and now every time I drive by I want to climb the fence and set them free, which led me to the full grown cows out in the field and that feeling yet again what the hell I eat cow don’t I…I need to become a vegetarian I guess.
So I drive a bit farther almost home I can see my turn ahead but I spot something in the road as I get closer ( some of you may want to skip this part I mean you really may want to skip the part I will put in Italics) I realize as I get closer it is two puppies, one dead on one side of the road and the other near death, and yes that vision is stuck in my head, that I straddle with my truck and start looking for a place to pull off.
I see a white truck ahead of me pulled off and realize he has either hit the puppy or is going back to handle it. His face was so very sad I wanted to stop and tell him it was okay they should not have been out in a busy street but I knew it wouldn’t have been much comfort.
I have always feared what I would do if alone and hit an animal, I have hit one or two Kamikaze squirrels but not someone’s pet and I don’t know what I would do. This time I would have ran home and grabbed my 19 year old and gone right back I was that close but if alone I really don’t know what I would do.
I feel so bad for the puppies and that poor man but was thankful he was in front of me and it was not I that hit those babies.
I have been dealing with the vision all night and now at work so thought time to write it out and tell myself those puppies are probably in a better place and are running side by side right now having a grand time.
I was the one in our family who buried all our dead pets and sadly there were many so I really want, I really NEED to believe that…
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I always figger I'll call them once I get there too.
And then all of them will come out and welcome me once again.
I have nightmares for seeing cars and trucks hitting anything along the road ways. Glad you wrote about this.
thanks for sharing dear.
I now have 4 cats in the flesh, 3 more "in spirit"-- Oddly enough, the ones "in spirit" still "come around" to see me.
The "cats in spirit" are as real as my "cats in flesh"
But it's hard to not be able to reach out and pet them.
They are still with me in the eternal "NOW" of eternity,
But then, they always have been.
When my beloved Lobo passed, many years flew by before another family member found its way into our hearts and home.
We've been blessed with our mutt, Annie. No matter how cruel the world's people are, one of her sloppy licks to our faces makes everything all better! :)
I once hit three deer as they ran across a highway. They were all killed by the hit and I can still remember the horror of it. Life can be brutal, as you well know. I give my cat extra rubs in memory of all the animals who suffer. And I fight for animal rights.
I live in a rural area, farm community, and what I call the 'farm mentality' abounds here - live stock animals are behind fences, they're valuable property - domestic pets run loose, they're either 'just there' (in one view, easily replaced) or they're family and should be allowed freedom to live their lives as they will.
A few centuries ago that worked well enough, traffic on foot, horseback and in wagons was easily avoided. Today, unnumbered roadways and up to several thousand pounds of speeding metal, not so much. Animals don't think like we do, speeding vehicles are just part of the landscape and the only traffic-savvy animal is the one who has survived it's first encounter with that traffic.
If I had a dollar for every pet that has been killed in it's own driveway at home.. think about it - we put them in our cars and travel here and there with them - why do we think they automatically know that the same vehicle is dangerous if they get in it's way? Family pet = small child mentally and emotionally - small children get hit every day in spite of the fact that we can actually explain the concept of vehicle vs human body to them.
We humans have changed the landscape, it's our responsibility to do what we can to protect the animals who share it with us. Not many of us bother to sadly. It won't be any consolation LL2, but those pups were probably dumped, unwanted, by the road with the mistaken idea that they'd be taken in by some farmer. I wish I had even a nickle for every scared and alone family pet I've seen slinking along the road shoulder, dumped by their owners with the thought that someone 'out in the country' would take them in. Better than euthanasia at the local pound right? A fighting chance?
What we tell ourselves when we abandon them anyway. Soothing.
The reality of course is that someone like the man in the truck in front of you, or you are left with picking up the pieces..
Rated for one of the many social illnesses we're plagued with.
During a near death experience, (Which some claim is just the brain dying, which I call BS on having been there), I met my father with one of our dogs and one that he introduced me to, a collie he had as a child.
When I asked if they were real, if they were the actual dog's souls, he smiled and aked what I thought, as my childhood friend met me as she always did, with enthusiasim and life.
They live on.
What?
Rated!
They need more good hearted people like you.
I think that's true. And your heart (and soul) are in the right place.