Basset vs. Mini Cooper

Yesterday, as my wife was driving back from the post office, she noticed a sixty-something man pushing a baby carriage, walking in the opposite direction, while holding his dog on a leash and talking, his cell phone wedged between his shoulder and his ear.

“Distracted,” by road-safety standards, would have been an understatement! She slowed down as she passed him and recognized him as the grand-father of a seven-month old baby who is actually our neighbor's son.

Suddenly she heard a thumping noise on the right side of her Mini Cooper and when she looked in her mirror she could only see something looking like a teddy bear in the middle of the road. She pulled over, walked back to the scene of the impact and found out that it was that same neighbor's basset dog, that had been wondering along with the rest of his group, unleashed.

He had crossed the road without looking and had hit the right wheel of my wife's auto and got pinned down between the lower body of the car and the asphalt. When she and the grandpa examined the dog, the poor pooch wasn't walking and his rear end looked scrapped to the skin and badly damaged. The grandpa remained optimistic and said “don't worry, he'll make it!”

We still notified the owner of the incident by sending him a message. He responded soon thereafter: “The dog should have been on a leash, no one's fault.  Unfortunately, he did not make it.  He was 11 and lived a good life.  It was just his time to go.  Please let Evelyne know that this was not her fault. These things happen...”

His response made us feel a whole lot better and latter on that evening, his wife brought us flowers to further alleviate the trauma. What a day!