A quick splash of good

[skid542]

I had to make my budget real tight for a few weeks (all is working out just fine now as I'd planned) to get my new brakes. I haven't significant money on upgrades on my car other than tires and brakes. Today I was justified in getting my brakes. I was cruising back from the creek on my road doing around 65, came over a little hill and a calico kitten was just starting to run across the road infront of me. I slammed my brakes and got it shut down about 20 feet infront of the kitten who had just finished getting out of my lane when I got stopped. Had I still had my old brakes I don't think the outcome would have been the same.

Just thought I'd share a 'happy' driving incident to bring a little cheer to the ashtray.

[Yukonart]

Got some warm fuzzies just reading that.

[tris91ricer]

Sounds unlike the post-mortem bunny rabbit I passed over just turning the corner on my road..
I can't say I've never hit anything, esp cats and bunnies, but.. to do it purposefully beats me.. I don't recall ever doing it. I felt bad when it happened accidentally. I even cried about that one..
Poor animals..

[AWD_addict]

Driving on 90 this past Friday I saw the most gruesome thing I have ever seen in the middle of the left lane. It looked like half a small deer or large dog had exploded, leaving the other half and assorted parts strewn about 20 yards. And the road surface between the parts was covered in blood. I had enough time to change lanes and avoid scraping over it. An '80s ranger was parked off to the side with a lot of frontal damage.
Leave it to us to turn those warm fuzzies around.

[tris91ricer]

That is quite the terrible reality out there.. Dogs, feral animals, and of course, our horned friends tend to get too close to the road sometimes.. ..and the results are far from aesthetic. Literally, the bigger they are, the harder they explode.

[evolutionmovement]

I like skunks because of their attitude - they dare you to hit them with their slow meandering waddle in the middle of the street at night. They're like, "What?! What?! You gonna hit me? Go right ahead - alls I got is this shitty skunk life to lose - you're car 'll smell for months, MF." I imagine a skunk mafia where they take care of the dead skunk's family if they stinkify someone's car on their way out.

I've had a squirrel comnmit suicide under my tires. Seriously.

Steve

[DLC]

The scary thing is what can happen when you're on two wheels.

[skid542]

I've only ever hit one deer and one cat. The deer jumped out 20 ft infront of me on a gravel road while I was doing about 30mph. The cat ran out right infront of the van in the middle of some turns at 45mph, hitting the brakes hard just isn't an option unfortunately. Feel kinda bad about them both but both could have easily avoided their fate by being smarter.
The dumbest animal I've witnessed is the Utah prarrie dog. When I was 13 my family went out west camping and going to places my dad had been backpacking through. When going through Utah we were told to watch out for the Utah prarrie dog since they were endangered or getting close to. Well we're driving down the road in the van and up ahead there's something in the road, we get a little closer and see that it's a bunch of prarrie dogs having a party in the middle of the road. And to top it off they all turn and stand up to look at you which puts them perfect bumper level. We didn't hit any and they moved but seriously, natural selection at work there.

[scottzg]

When i was working in idaho i'd end up driving ~2-3 hours of mountain roads a day (unfortunately in big huge giant trucks). The idiot squirells would run out under the cars, one girl i worked with almost plastered us into a guard rail trying to dodge them TWICE. There was no way to actually dodge them, they were just as likely to change directions halfway under the car, so we made a game of it. 10 points per squirell, 5 extra if he had a pinecone in his mouth. The guy that won racked up 55 points

Yeah, its gruesome, but it sure beats endangering yourself trying to dodge them...

[evolutionmovement]

The only things you're probably better off swerving for is a moose or an elephant. Don't see many elephants.

I figure my car is a localized Darwinian event weeding out the animals too dumb or too slow. It may not be pleasant, but I didn't the inherent violence of evolution wasn't my idea. Ever notice how birds swoop in front of your car? They could go at any altitude or wait until you pass, but they don't. I think it's a form of X-game for them.

Steve

[LaureltheQueen]

I hit a deer once in my 91. She was stupid. Stopped in the middle of the road. As soon as I saw it, I slammed on my brakes and veered to the edge. As I was sliding, she took a few steps TOWARDS me. Glanced off my fender, breaking my corner light, and denting up the fender pretty well. Probably would have survived if it weren't for the dodge truck that she bounced off my car into, and then got run over by a ford truck...

[tris91ricer]

As morbid as this thread is.. I'm having a bad day, and this entire conversation has seemed to lift my spirits just a tad. (no pun intended)
Wish I had more dead animal stories.. oh wait, I do! We haven't seen my uncle's cat in like, 4 days now.. think he's been eaten by a coyote in the woods behind the house. If it weren't raining, I'd go check. I'd probably come up with an excuse not to, even in the sunshine, as I didn't really want to find this cat... ..dead.