We had a crisis the other night! I looked in the frig and WE WERE OUT OF WATERMELON! Lordy, Lordy, What ARE we gonna do? I hooked Shadow's leash to the rear bumper of the car and prepared to leave the driveway. NOT! I opened the the side door and asked him to jump up into his car crate. He loves to go for a ride and eagerly hopped aboard.
Off we went to the local market.
I used to let Shadow ride up front in the passenger seat but that wasn't a good idea for two reasons. He would lick and sniff all the windows in the car and I was continually cleaning his nose and tongue prints off the glass. The other thing was that there are a lot of "oldsters" driving here in Florida and every once in a while they would brake or change lanes with no signal or no apparent reason. I thought I had learned by now (after living in this small town to take extra care) to watch more closely. But because, every now and then I'd have to tap my brakes suddenly, Shadow would fall off his perch and get tossed around. I decided he would be better off in a traveling crate in the back seat. I found the perfect size and he got used to it quickly. Turns out it was a safe thing for him.
Leaving the market parking lot, I had to cross the oncoming lane and wait in the median lane to proceed back home. I looked left, then I looked right to make sure my intended lane was clear. I accelerated to about fifteen miles an hour and was quite surprised to feel and hear something impact the passenger side of my car.
I had not seen the car that hit me. I don't know if the car lights were off or it was traveling at an excessive speed, but BAM! We had a collision.
Both of us were still able to drive our cars so we pulled into a parking lot on the right side of the road and got out to exchange information. Before I went over to the lady's car, I wanted to check my dog. I went around the car and saw the long scrape where her car had impacted mine. The car door to Shadow's side was bent a little bit and it took some muscle to pry it open. I opened his crate and he hopped out. I had him stay still until I checked each of his legs and neck. Shadow likes to be touched and petted and he stayed in place as I checked him out. There were no areas where he was tender and he was wagging his tail so I let him stay on his leash outside the car. It was a hot summer evening and I had to go talk to the lady I had the accident with.
She seemed a little disoriented, but was able to walk around. I called the police and she and I waited for them to arrive. During the wait, we checked out her car to see if her drive wheels could still turn right and left. There was no scraping so her car was still drivable. I asked her several times if she wanted me to call an ambulance but she didn't want one. I was glad both of us were okay as well as the dog.
The County Sherrif who arrived to cover the accident took our licenses, registration and insurance cards and a statement from each of us and went back to her cruiser to write up the report. She mentioned this was her first incident since coming on duty that night and she was glad the accident didn't involve any injuries. I could empathize with her; it is probably very discouraging to see continual carnage on the streets and highways.
Shadow, even though he was an eyewitness, had nothing more to contribute than "woof". I was glad that he was not an excitable dog. He was calm throughout the entire time.
The officer came back over gave our papers back to us and a copy of the police report. She could not have been more polite, helpful and efficient. I was thinking by contrast how the police in Los Angeles would have handled a similar incident; they would not even had shown up. We would have had to go to the local station to get a report in a few days or a week. When this officer gave us our paperwork, she said, "Go ahead and call to your insurance companies tomorrow, drive safely and have a nice evening. Nice dog!" She drove off and I came home with a scratched car, a safe puppy AND an unbroken watermelon. Thank you, Jesus!
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