Day 336 – Tragedy Strikes

336/365 (December 2, 2010) – I feel terrible. I spent the afternoon downtown and was heading home. It was just starting to mist and I was feeling quite smug about making it home before the rain hit full on. I turned down my street and was just a few houses away from our driveway when something grey a furry flashed out from the bushes a foot or two beside me…. and shot right under my front wheel. There was a thud and I fought to keep the bike upright as the front wheel went into a full on wobble. I got control and stopped the scooter. Then looked around to see what I’d hit. I couldn’t see anything anywhere.

It was too big for a cat, and it had moved too fast. We don’t have any rabbits around here. So that only left one possibility, a big grey squirrel. I turned around and rode slowly back, but couldn’t find anything.

I drove the scooter home and parked it, took off my helmet and walked back up the street. ANd I found it. A big, furry, grey squirrel, the one that is always nosing around or deck, curled at the side of the road, blood covering its nose and face. Eyes wide open.

I crouched down and poked at it with my key chain, leaving blood all over the metal. The eyes didn’t move, there was no chest movement. The poor little thing was dead. If it had moved I suppose I would have picked it up and run the few blocks to the vet to have them put it out of its misery. But it had no life left in it.

A woman came down the street on her electric medical scooter and I stood up and started to walk away. She saw what I had been looking at and said “Poor thing, has it been dead long?” I said “No, i just killed it with my scooter about two minutes ago.” Her response was kind, “At least it didn’t suffer long. That was nice that you came back to check on it.”

In 27 years of driving, all I have ever hit was a small bird off the windshield of my truck. I went over a squirrel once, but it managed to stop and all four wheels went safely over it. That’s quite an accomplishment when you think about the fact that I come from up North where there is plenty of wildlife, and lots of free roaming pets, on the roads.

I couldn’t help but cry.