Have you ever passed an animal
on the road that was hit by a car? Did you ever assume
that it was mortally wounded, and kept driving? Maybe
you shouldn't have, and I'll tell you why.
My wife and I were driving from the Vets
one sunny summer day, back to our house, when out of
the blue she yells, "Lookout!". Being a professional
driver for many years, my reflexes are extremely fast,
and I swerved just in time to miss a kitten by inches,
that was laying on the road. I automatically assumed
it was already dead, but my wife would not let me leave,
yelling "I saw it moving, I saw it moving"!
Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not a wuss,
but I really don't want to be picking up road kill all
the time, or worse, a severely injured animal. I was
dreading every moment of this particular rescue, but
I couldn't just stop in the middle of this busy street,
so we had to manage a u-turn a little further up, and
pull around on the other side of the median separating
the road. After stopping, my wife then burst out of
the car, and ran over to the scene like she was on Rescue
911. Half-way across I squirmed as a minivan came over
the hill and didn't even slow down when running right
over the helpless kitten. Don't worry though, the kitten
passed directly underneath the vehicle without being
touched. Seconds later, the traffic had been halted,
and the kitten extracted at warp speed.
When she returned to our car, my wife had
a kitten small enough to fit in even her tiny hands.
We immediately scanned for injuries, but could not find
anything but fur. So, with a sigh of relief, we sped
back to the animal hospital where our Vet practices.
We were greeted at the hospital with great urgency,
and gentle care, but without immediately knowing this
adorable kittens fate, we unfortunately had to leave
for our own lives to continue.
I bet you're wondering if this is a happy
story, or a sad one. To tell you the truth, it's a little
of both. But, if you need it broken down to good and
bad, here it is. The good news is that he lived. His
name is Bullit, for dodging one, and he will live a
basically normal life. The bad news is, that Bullit
needs an excision arthroplasty because of a fractured
hip. The surgery costs about 700 dollars, and through
the goodness of his own heart, our Vet is performing
it anyway. The broken hip will be a slight nuisance
to Bullit, but we think he might prefer that over certain
death.
If you absorb any of this story, please
take this home with you, and feed it. Don't assume,
don't keep going, and do, what you can to help. It only
takes one life saved to be, like, totally worth it.
Kapeesh!
P.S.
We have learned that since this story
was written, Bullit has been adopted and is now in a
good home. |