Folks who are squeamish about animals, beware this post.


Not all loose dogs have been "allowed" to run loose. Even the most careful owner sometimes finds themselves looking for a loose, wandered-off dog. Our Faulkner will never have the "opportunity" to enjoy the outdoors off-leash again, but his life is seriously affected by the measures we have had to take and even then I cannot guarantee I will never hear him "get it in the road" outside my front window..... what if this, and what iof thatm, and what if.... what if..... there are so many ways "foolproof" isn't actually guaranteeable.

One dog we had taken as a foster from a shelter, for instance, was a real escape artist. They didn't tell us. We're good, but we were always one move behind that dog's tricks, and he won that contest before we got it all figured out. We like to hope he found a better home that suited his needs, because we never found him (dead or alive).


Wes, you did right. Here in deer country, the first piece of wisdom we were taught when we moved here was HIT THE DEER. Always. They might just move off fast enough to avoid the hit, but slow down as much as you can and hold your wheels straight, or there will be two deaths-- you AND the deer. It's always upsetting but whaddayagonnado? The deer didn't get the memo that people were moving in.... here, they are as plentiful as the possums some areas see as roadkill every spring, or the raccoons. Roadkill Bambi is, unfortunately, more distressing to most people than Roadkill Possum, but it's the same thing-- wildlife and humans intersecting.

My horror story about hitting dogs is, one lost (our dear BJ) and one hit (I cannot even begin to say how awful THAT one was). For the one we hit, just try it this way-- you're rushing to an emergency you've been called to respond to, and you hit a dog along the way. Do you stop, or not? How to you weigh THAT? We felt a little like a train engineer must feel when a collision is unavoidable.


[BLUNTSPEAK OFF, legalspeak on]


The LEGAL picture in our area is that it is not illegal to have your cows loose on the road-- it's farmland protected by state law in that way and the burden of care is on the driver to watch for cows. But it is a CIVIL-court financial liability that any damage caused by a loose cow, including damage to a car in a collision, is hands-down on the cow owner. And it applies, here, to dogs as well, no matter how the dog got loose.

~S~