Brake Check... Almost Hit a Cat :(

OMG I almost cried when I thought it hit a squirrel and I hate those things! ;) I hate to see animals in distress as well. Luckily I have never hit an animal, but have had a few close calls! I'm so glad you didn't hit the kitty, I guess it's one life down now! ;)

I hit someone's dog :(

It was a terrible situation. Teenager saw me coming (only car on the street), and called for her dog. I heard "Pookie!" through my open window just as I was driving past her, and then a dog races out from the lawn they were pooping on to run to her. Right in front of my car. It all happened in about 2 seconds. She looked up as I passed her house, she calls, dog runs, I slam on breaks, but still hit her dog.

They took the dog to the vet ( I donated a blanket from my trunk to wrap him in, because injured animals bite). 3 days later I get a bill for $11,000 (9k in vet bills, 1k in ER bills -dog bit the father-, and 1k funeral bills) and a notice that I need to pay 10k in addition for pain and suffering and cruelty to animals or I would be sued for blah blah blah.

Um. No. ((Didn't Rachel just ask a Q about "Natural Bad Luck Magnet"?))

Don't get me wrong, I love animals and I felt terrible, but it wasn't my fault; legally or morally.

Legally, our city has leash laws. If the dog had been on leash or fenced in their yard (instead of pooping on the neighbor's lawn), there's no way he'd have been hit. In fact, dog owners of loose dogs who cause car accidents are 'at fault' for any traffic accident that happens because of their loose dog (aka someone slams on the breaks and someone else plows into them, it's not the breaking driver's fault. In the split second they see something run in front of them most people don't know WHAT is running in front of them. It could be a dog, but it could also be a kid.).

Morally; I was going the speed limit she called the dog across the street in front of my car. Even if she hadn't called the dog, the dog ran in front of me. I wasn't chasing him down.

On day 4 I had to deal with the police and have them explain to the owners that they were in the wrong. At first, they told the same story I did. When the cops said they were wrong and asked if I had damages to my car that they would be responsible for they changed their story VERY quickly. First I was a madwoman chasing their dog down the street (still not legally responsible, since the dog wasn't on leash). THEN they tried to say that I DID run the dog down in their driveway while it was on leash.

Seattle rains a lot. It hadn't. So I just took the officers over to my blatant skid marks on the street and the still present pool of blood. :( :( :(

Once. I'm a cat-lover so it was horrible.

I was 8 months pregnant, my younger sister had just met me for coffee to tell me about how she really never liked my husband and was upset with the way we were handling our pregnancy (stupid stuff, I'm not even sure if she feels that way now since it was almost five years ago and they talk). My husband was out of town, it was 11:30 p.m. and pouring rain. The kitty ran out in front of me and I don't think I could have moved or braked or accellerated and been sure to miss it. There were homes all along the road but NONE of them had their lights on. I did not know if it was a pet or not (it probably was) and I didn't want to start waking everyone up in the middle of the night. I moved the cat and sat in the rain crying with the dead cat for quite a while. An older man even stopped and tried to tell me I should go home since I couldn't do anything and it wasn't my fault. Some of it was my pregnant hormones, but all I could think of was if something happened to my cat and I never knew. I kept thinking about some little child or old lonely person whose cat didn't come home.

If it were a reasonable time of day I would definitely check. I used to stop and move roadkill off the highway when I biked to work or school. I would never wreck my car to avoid a small animal, but a pet is a horrible thing to accidently hit. :(

Oh, and incidently our cat is indoors. Unfortunately, he has escaped twice. The first time we forgot our screen was out when we took our AC out upstairs. The cat jumped into the window and the screen didn't catch him. :( We didn't know he was outside for several hours. (That was a second story drop.) The second time was when our oldest (at 18 months) pushed the cat through the screen into the flower beds and then pulled over a toy and climbed out after him, right through the roses. The cat stuck around each time, but he is 100% indoor kitty! (Both of them were fine and my husband didn't start crying until after we knew our son was fine, but he didn't hear a thing standing around the corner.)

My daughter is driving on a permit and hit a squirrel. She was near tears. We had to pull over and get him to the side of the road. He was very dead, it was very sad.
We stop for turtles all the time.
I have never hit a pet, thank goodness. I have saved many homeless pets though.
And once I saw a cat that had been hit so I went and got a bag to pick him up. THe mom came out and saw it was hers and had to shoo her little girl away. I moved it to the side of her house. I cried over him. I am such a sap.

One time I was driving behind my aunt. She lived on a farm and had told us how cats/kittens would climb up under her car some times. Anyway, we had driven to the store. Stopped. Went shopping, and then we were following her home. An adorable little kitten fell out from under her car (no idea why it was there THAT long!). My husband carefully swerved to miss it. We were going over 60 mph. He swerved perfectly and hit it. It was AWFUL!! I felt so bad. We didn't stop to find the owner because she was the one in front of us. Poor kitty.

Another time I was driving to the post office with my (then) three kids. The baby was screaming and screaming and screaming. I was already feeling pretty flustered. As we were driving, a little tiny dog ran out into the street. I saw it in enough time, and I hit my brakes. I missed it, until it turned and came back at literally the last second and got hit. Poor doggy started screaming and ran off crazy. There were houses everywhere, and I had no idea whose dog it was. Plus, I had no idea where the dog went. And, I had a baby screaming in the car. It was one of those days where I felt like screaming. I would have LOVED to have found the dog and make sure he/she was okay. I would have also loved to have found the owner to let them know. But the dog could have literally belonged to one of any number of homes (hundreds). I felt so bad, though.

My vote is that if people have pets, they need to keep them safely under their watchful eye. I think drivers need to be careful too, but I do believe the owners carry the larger amount of responsibility. Similar to children - I believe it's the parent's responsibility to keep children out of the street so drivers can drive by safely.

But, either way, it's a horrible thing, and I have felt awful both times...even if it was technically my hubby the first time.

The only animal I ever hit was in high school. I was driving into the school parking lot one morning and a bird hit my windshield. I was so traumatized. I couldn't stop crying and got sent to the nurses office until I could calm down. The nurse, I think, thought I was being ridiculous.
I used to work at an emergency vet's office and saw the result of several car accidents involving pets. It was heartbreaking. Once, driving to that job I saw a cat that had been hit and was lying in the road. I stopped, picked it up, wrapped it in my coat and took it to work. Sadly it didn't make it. :( Now I am going to kiss my kid to cheer me up because this made me sad. :(

I haven't hit a pet, but I was once driving through a road that cuts through a forest preserve and I ran over an ENTIRE FAMILY of raccoons! I saw their eyes glowing in the dark right before I ran over them. My car bumped along, like I was going over RR tracks. I was VERY shaken and started crying....so yes, I think I would stop and try to find the owner of a hit pet.

I agree with you about keeping cats indoors. My neighbors had indoor/outdoor cats and 1 of them was hit by a car while the family was out of town...the person who hit him brought him home (address was on the id tag) and they just put him on the porch where he moaned in pain for a day before he died. I was always so mad at that family for not keeping the poor cat inside.

When I was in high school, my friend was driving to go to lunch (open campus.) We were on a residential street not going very fast. A cat darted out in front of the car. She slammed on the brakes and when the cat was safely across our path, she started to go again and the cat doubled back in front of the car! We hit it. It got up and ran across the street and into a yard and laid down. We stopped and looked around for an owner. The cat was obviously badly injured and we didn't see anyone, so we took it to the vet. We were both very shaken. The vet was very nice, but told us the cat was "not going to make it." (In hindsight, I'm pretty sure it was already dead and he was trying to spare us.) We told him that the cat got up an ran after it was hit so there must be some hope that it would be okay. He said that sometimes when an animal is injured they have a "last burst" of energy and run off to die. He told us that we did everything we could and that it wasn't our fault. We asked him if we owed him anything and he said no (small town) and he said that he would try to find the owner, that we should just go back to school. We were a mess.

I ran over a rabbit (wild) once. I had to pull over to make sure it was actually dead--then I sat there and cried for a few minutes. Oh, and once I clipped an antelope--the stupid thing darted across the road (I saw it way early and slowed), then ran into a fence and darted back across the street and clipped my bumper! Fortunately, it just ran off and didn't damage the car (a rental).

I'm with the other commenters about pet owners taking responsibility for their animals! My cats are strictly indoors, although they have escaped a few times (always hang out nearby until I realize they're gone and let them in again). I think that if you let your pets roam the neighborhood, you just have to understand that one day they just may not come back.

I couldn't belive that one story below... about hitting the dog and getting the vet/ER/pain & suffering bill! What a crock! I have let my dog hang out with me without a leash, but I keep a close eye on him AND the cars driving by. I get nervous about the idiots who drive 40 mph on my little street (probably 100yards from one stop sign to the next)--what if a cat or dog wanders in the street and they swerve to miss it and end up hitting a kid (who is safely in a front yard/driveway)??? I've been tempted to jump in front of them to "test" their brakes!

One time I came about thisclose to hitting someone's toddler! It was a very busy street, and I was approaching the freeway on-ramp. A lady was walking along, pushing a stroller with one hand and holding her toddler's hand with her other hand. Right as I was approaching, the toddler got away from her and darted out in front of my car. I slammed on the brakes and swerved, but I drive an Expedition and those things don't exactly stop on a dime. Just as I was swerving/braking, she grabbed his arm and hauled him back onto the sidewalk, but I mean it had to be inches that I missed that kid by. I had to pull over - I was crying and shaking. My mom was in the car and was pretty freaked out as well. I just couldn't stop thinking, what if I had been on the phone, or changing the radio station - that little boy would have been dead! It still makes me sick thinking about it! I'm just glad I had been going under the speed limit and paying close attention (as I always do, and I do always slow down when I see kids on the sidewalk - thank god I didn't make an exception that day!)

Thankfully I haven't ever hit a pet, but yesterday driving to work (on an incredibly busy freeway) my husband saw someone's big, lop-eared rabbit hopping around on the freeway. Around here, people drive like maniacs 24/7, but he said the freeway was pretty much at a standstill because nobody wanted to hit this rabbit! Poor bunny. He couldn't see if it eventually made it off the freeway or not.