Squirrels are silly little animals. When they try to run across the street and a car is coming towards them, most of the time they can't commit to going across. They turn back.
William and I were driving up Alamac Road towards town, when a squirrel darted into the road before us. I slowed down to give him room to turn back, but this squirrel didn't. He took a flying leap into the oncoming traffic. William and I watched in horror as the squirrel flew into the front passenger wheel of the car and was flung aroung it and then cast off like a stone. There was no way it could have lived, even William knew this. So I didn't try to hide the death. His big brown eyes teared up and he asked why didn't I blow the horn. As if this was my fault.
I pulled into a drive and turned off the truck. Taking his hand I tried to explain how animals don't know that vehicles are dangerous. This was no one's fault.
I don't know if I got through. He dried his eyes and we went on our way. Since then I keep seeing that squirrel leaping straight into the wheel. I wish for once, it had turned back to the safety of the grass on the side of the road.
2 comments:
Aw, that is the worst... I see it often around here too, especially in spring, when the baby squirrels are out, and they don't know any better... a few weeks back also, walking home from work, a car about a block ahead of me hit a female mallard, killing her, and leaving her babies on the side of the road trying to get out to where she lay... I had to get traffic to slow down so I could cross and try shooing them away to the stream near the road... such a shame he had to see that tho.
what a sad story. i love squirrels but they do seem to run into traffic a lot. i miss them more than anything living here. i only wish they had squirrels. ppl/young boys would probably kill them though. not many animal lovers in this part of the world.
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