Topic: I accidentally ran over a kitten.

[Pugnate]

This stray cat outside our house gave birth to a little of lovely kittens. This one was the cutest and friendliest. I used to feed it and play with it.

Every morning I check when I am leaving to make sure there aren't any kittens sleeping but today I was in a hurry as we were late. I started the car and felt a bump as if it were a rock and drove off not thinking twice.

When I came back the kitten was on the driveway with blood all over the floor, her head crushed. Her mother was sitting next to her.

The guards outside the house told me she suffered for four or five minutes while her mum tried to comfort her.

I feel really awful. I can't believe this happened. I cried a little.

[PyroMenace]

Ugh, that really sucks.

Right after I broke up with my first gf, I was driving back from a friends place. It was dark and a random cat took off across the street right in front me... I felt the thud... I felt terrible on top of feeling terrible.

A couple months ago I was back in Nashville with a friend, he lives in a remote neighborhood and we drove to get some taco bell later in the evening. He had warned me about deer crossing the street, well I was driving down a main road and there happened to be one darting across. At that moment my friend was telling me to slow down immediately, I did as I saw the deer, however... I didn't see the small litter of fawn's right in front me, I swerved (basically threaded the needle) right in between them. It was pretty terrifying.

[Quemaqua]

Man, that's the worst. I try to remember to drive slow all the time now, because I've seen two companion animals get killed by asshole driving in Texas. I did once see a speeding asshole hit a deer in California, though the deer at least was okay enough to get off the road and sprint through the trees. I hope it was okay. But Heather and I were on a walk once, and some idiot had his dog off the leash outside his house on a 4-lane road. It decided to come bark at us, and we tried desperately to get it to either come to us or back off because it was dark and we knew someone would come along and cream it, and that's exactly what happened. The guy ran over and picked it up, but I sincerely doubt it lived. Was awful. Then I saw a cat get hit by a jerk in a gigantic truck right outside the house here. It spasmed out in the middle of the road and the owner came screaming "no, no no" down the road to get it. The jerk in the truck was his neighbor. I don't think he even saw the poor thing. I'm surprised he can even see the road in that fucking monstrosity.

Sorry man, I know that sucks. I've not yet hit an animal, or at least I don't think so. I once almost killed an entire family of skunks crossing the road when I was coming back from seeing my then-girlfriend who lived at the top of a big hill that would get super foggy some nights. I couldn't see but 10 feet in front of the car, and while I was driving very slow, it wasn't slow enough. I didn't feel a bump and when I looked back I didn't see anything, but there was a mother skunk and like 4 babies. It really rattled me. Also, my car smelled like hell for two weeks. I'm at least fairly sure I avoided hitting them, but they definitely got me pretty good.

[Pugnate]

Thanks guys. It happened this morning and I don't know why it is still with me.

[Cobra951]

I did run into a cat once, maybe some 35 years ago.  It leaped out on the road in front of me, and I swear it was trying to commit suicide because each of the two chances I had to try to swerve around it, it jumped in front of the car again.  It was the weirdest thing, like it was meant to happen, and there was no way of avoiding it.  It's a vivid memory to this day.

Cats sleeping under cars are accidents waiting to happen.  I'm so sorry it happened to you, Pug.

[idolminds]

My sympathies, man. Even reading this is like a punch to my stomach.

[nickclone]

That sucks, I was at a friend's house and there was a toad outside. I picked it up, fed it a moth and put it in the grass so no one would step on it. I went inside for another beer, when I came out and closed the door, he jumped in the crease and I squished his head. I wanted to barf...

To make matters worse I had to "throw him away". Just take solace in knowing that you care about other living beings. I was in a car with a guy who tried to hit animals, he was a dick.

[Quemaqua]

You'd be amazed at the people out there. Being a big animal rights guy I'm involved with a lot of organizations, and I remember one study where people put a fake turtle on the road to see who would stop and try to help it cross the road, and what they found is that most people actually went out of their way to run it over. People are fucking dicks.

[nickclone]

I don't know if I would stop to help it across, that seems dangerous to me. One woman caused a fatal accident when she stopped on a highway to help some ducks across the street.

My friend was dating a guy one time who was pretty fucked up. We went to the store once and he was trying to hit squirrels and stuff.

[Quemaqua]

Would depend on the road and visibility, I guess, but I'd say the animals are nearly as likely to cause an accident as you would be helping them across. I know two or three people who've gotten into bad accidents just on account of being surprised by squirrels and such. With anything but a blind corner or something near to it, a person is a lot more visible and thus probably the safer condition since a driver would be less likely to panic.

[nickclone]

My dad would always overly swerve to avoid animals, dead or alive. I'm not a hippie, I just think if you can not kill something, don't kill it...aaaaaanddd I'm drunk.

[Pugnate]

I can't believe would go out of their way to kill an animal on the road!

[Cobra951]

Oh, yeah, or at least not give a hoot if they run over some squirrel or rabbit, or possum.  I've seen that plenty of times around these parts.  Particularly the yahoos in pickup trucks seem to care the least, in places like Lawrenceburg, IN and surroundings.  They'll swerve plenty to avoid a skunk or a deer, though.

One time, I was at work at a place that sat near a rural highway.  My cubicle had lots of glass to look through behind me.  People there drive 50-60 routinely.  (I think the limit was at least 50, if memory serves.)  These ducks constantly crossed that highway.  For some reason, they liked to waddle over to our parking lot, then waddle back across to a pond on the other side.  Everyone typically stopped and waited.  This one day, I happened to be looking at them doing their typical slow walk across, when this semi truck comes barreling down.  He had to be doing 70 at least, and he slowed down not one iota.  Disaster?  No.  He didn't hit a single duck.  I now know those things are just messing with us, showing off on their crawl across the road so everyone has to stop and look at them.  Oh, yeah!  When they knew that mass of metal was not going to play their game, man, you should have seen how fast they could take to the air and scatter.  Hahaha!  The only casualties were a few feathers.

I did hit a bird with my windshield once.  It was the freakiest thing.  I was going about 60 on the highway, and this dumb thing just comes in gliding out of nowhere, prancing in the air, going the same direction I was (which is what makes it not seeing me so puzzling).  I remember it looking back a split second before the splat, and then seeing the body on the road in the mirror, with a shower of feathers slowly joining it.  Like the cat, this all happened so fast, but I remember it almost in slow motion.  Weird.  Lucky for me, it hit on the passenger side, because it made a non-transparent mess.