Oh Deer

OK, let’s talk about something I’ve been really curious about—road kill.

I’ve lived most of my driving life—and adult life—in the city. Although there are many questionable aspects to living in the city, you don’t often see road kill, thankfully.

It’s obviously abundant here and, every time I see a little critter on the side of the road, I take a tiny moment of silence for it.

Maybe I’m a little overly sensitive about these animals.

In fact, when I was in high school, there was a time I saw a deer that had been hit on the side of the road and, while I won’t describe it, I’ll just say this—it wasn’t dead yet. As a dramatic and sensitive high school girl, I vowed to never eat meat again out of horror/respect for Bambi’s ill-fated cousin. That solidarity, of course, only lasted about 12 hours.

As I drive on these two-lane roads in the evening, I'm always wondering what would happen if I hit something, especially a deer.

As I’ve mentioned before, I drive around a lot for a newspaper I freelance for, and I’ve driven through Deer Lakes Park a zillion times. I finally drove past it while the sun was still up, and it's so lush and green. I also saw a group of five deer staring me down from the side of the road. Thankfully, they ran into the woods, and not onto the road.

I thought about how I would react if had hit one. I'm not quite sure how it would go, although I’m pretty certain it would involve crying.

I wonder sometimes if it would be like the movie Tommy Boy, where I’d throw some animal in the back of my car, only to have it wake at an inopportune moment and cause hilarious havoc (or probably not). Or, would it smash in the front of my car, break my winshield or worse?

I try to be really careful so this situation doesn’t occur. Have you hit a deer? Are you desensitized to seeing road kill because it’s just a part of everyday life here?