I can get it out of my head.

I was trailering home from the track and coming through a rural stretch of freeway and I see a duck with several ducklings trying to cross.

I slowed down and the ducks stopped.
The car next to me in the fast lane ran them all over and I saw it in my mirror.

I got a little teary. When the driver passed me, she was visibly upset, too.

It keeps replaying over and over.
I really like ducks...used to feed 'em as little boy. Also had a job at Embassy Suites years ago and fed 'em then too. Saw lots of ducklings.


KT


__________________

this is sad........... were they all killed?

wow, thats really sad. I still remember from a long time ago...probably 6 years at least, we were driving down the interstate, and a TINY turtle was crossing right over the road. I mean this guy was probably only the size of my hand. We slowed down, and the little guy took off towards the center lane...I didn't know turtle could move that fast...but he got there right in time for the 90 year old guy driving a lincoln to run over the little guy. We lived by a river, so we always picked up turtles on the road and moved them, so this was really bad. I dont think you will ever forget it...I can still remember it just like it was yesterday..still makes me sad now...

aww man...delete that pic please...seriously

That's horrible. I saw a dog get hit by a car when I was 17, I can still hear it scream. I drove around the neighborhood looking for it, thinking it needs to get to a vet but I never found it.

I've also had several turtles and currently have a 5 yr old tortoise. I was on a rural gravel road and saw a turtle sitting right in the middle. So I stopped and was going to move him off into the grass, but when I got up to him it was only half of a turtle. The other half was crushed. It shocked the hell out of me because it looked like a whole turtle while sitting in the car.

The images of both those events are burned into my brain.

Really sad.... I hate roadkill.
I had a duck when I was younger, about 10 years ago. I got him when he was a duckling from my kindergarden teacher. We kept him in our backyard, and had the healthiest most bug free garden ever Ate all the goldfish in our pond though. He used to escape and run/waddle down the neighborhood streets
Finally had to take him to a local pond and let him go with all his fellow buddies, but we enjoyed him.

We had a family picnic on Saturday at Lake Elizibeth in Fremont, Sherryl and I went for a walk with the twins and I captured this picture

Click to view attachment

Very nice , Mike


KT

Cute pic Mike!

Hey people, it's sad, and life goes on... we all care about the little living things.. but don't sweat anything that happens, it's all part of life.. it's sad, but it's part of it... and that is a really cute pic Mike!


M

Yah it's all part of life, like my shotgun, if they hadn't flown in front of it they would still be alive.

Last year I was on my way home from Home Depot and saw in the road ahead - something - as I got closer that something was a freshly killed mom duck still surrounded by over 10 ducklings. I stopped my car just before this scene and flagged two lanes of traffic to stop - whipped off my shirt once I realized it was the only thing I could collect the ducklings in - by then of course some started to run for it - I managed to get 5 home - feed them for a month or so - one drowed in about an inch of water but the other four grew big - they would not fly away until the last one could go with them. Their first flights were anything but gracefull - especially the landings : )

My coworker has a squirrel that just left home. His cat brought home an almost dead baby squirrel about a month ago - he feed and caged the baby squirrel until it got its teeth - then he let it outside - and for a few nights it would come back to him to be put in cage but now it come back to him infrequently for a short visit but spends its night in the forest.

When I lived in Texas, my wife was driving the 240 SX(Pop up headlights, similar to a 914) Truck in front of her hit a young deer, which landed on my wife's hood, getting caught on the headlight. Deer is not dead, sort of thrashing around. This dude stops, lifts its head up off the car and dispatches it with his pistol. He tosses the deer in the ditch, asks the wife if she is okay to drive, and drives off. A good samaritan with a gun

A few years back The wife and I were driving up an on ramp on a major highway when a momma duck and babies crossed out in front of us. I managed to stop in time. I waited for them to cross while watching in my rearview as the big rig closed the gap and started to jack knife. I waited untill I hoped the ducks cleared and floored it. Luckly all was well. Just a pissed off trucker.

David

I must confess:

In the dark last night when I got home from "Andy's Wonderful Adventure" I stepped on a snail. I felt bad. I was carrying a laptop, my travel bag and my day planner.. didnt see the little guy


B

Snails are the bain of me and my garden's existence.

Poor little ducks though.. My chinese nickname ever since I was little loosely translates to 'little duck' so I've always had a fondness for them. Thanks to everyone who posted here that's saved an animal trying to cross the street.

I always try to catch dogs I find wandering the streets and bring them home. There's one shitzu in my mom's neighborhood that always gets out of the backyard. About once every two months, I end up jumping out of my car at lunch and herding Honey back to her backyard.

Jen

Totally splatted a cat a couple of weeks ago.....nothing I could do as I was going 80mph and it just ran out in front of me.

Glad it wasn't a moose.

Sensitive type huh?

I'm withdrawing my nomination for Brad as humanitarian of the year.

Interesting Jenny, I have a fondness for Chinese duck also, tea smoked is my all time fav...oops, wrong crowd....

:
I guess that puts me out of the running too.....

One night drive home late on La Sierra towards Arlington, I saw a pair of dogs dart from the center divider into my lane of traffic. I slowed, stopped, and waited for them to cross. As they were clear from in front of me I slowly continued

I look in my rearview, a guy in a old Nissan 350Z didn't have his lights on, was going too fast, and caught the first dog. The other stood there in bewilderment. I remember watching the guy slam on his brakes, look around in confusion, then speed up and pass me, and turn off at the next signal.

One of my distant uncles taught me that snails dont like salt...
Kinda fun watching the bubles... I think I was 4 at the time..

Last summer I ran over a squirrel with my bicycle. Tried to hop the bike, but no dice. I looked back in time to see the little guy breakdancing on the pavement like they do when they've been run over by a car. I guess 200 lbs of guy (plus the bike) concentrated over a skinny tire is a lot to get hit with.

I'm sure there is a duck heaven somewhere.

Shortly after I had moved back here to Colorado, I was driving up my parents road in the mountains, and came across a baby deer caught in a steel fence. I mean -baby-. The fawn was still wet. Apparently, he had tried to climb through one of the holes in the fence (not chain link), but got one of his legs through the wrong hole. Couldn't figure out how to go backwards...

I stopped, and fished around in my car for a clean plastic bag (always handy to keep an extra trash bag around), and wrapped it over my hands. Little guy wasn't afraid of me (hadn't figured out that humans are not the safest critters). I kneeled down and, with hand in plastic, helped guide his stuck leg out of the fence and in through the propper hole. Soon as his leg was cleared, off he scampered...

The plastic bag was to keep my scent off him. If momma had smelled me on him, he'd have been rejected by the mom, and would have most likley died.

To this day, he, and the rest of his herd, live around my parents house. Now he's a spectacular 10 point buck. Early on, when he was still just a young one, he'd take corn from my hand. But one day, when reaching out a handfull of corn, he knelt down and his 6 point rack was pointing right into my face. After that, he didn't get the corn from my hand anymore. The corn was for the Blue Jays (like they really needed it...), and since then, it's just for the Jays.

The herd is healthy, and "lefty" as we've come to call him, seems to be the Big Buck of the herd still. We named him lefty as that was the first antler to fall off when he was a young buck.

-Josh2

The EXACT same thing happened to me the other day. It may have been the saddest thing ever. I can't get it out of my head.

i remember vividly, about 10 years back, while riding in the car w/ my mom as we were coming home from the market. And we see a few pigeons down the street we were coming down. My mom mutters "they'll fly away as a i drive through." I guess one of the pigeons wasnt the brightest of the bunch and decides to fly away a bit later than the rest. Long story short as the pigeon began to fly off (he was about 2ft off the ground) the pigeons hits the bumper/grill of our 88' corolla. I turn back to see if the pigeon was alive or not, to my surprise i didnt see anything. Although, there's still that vivid "thunk" sound the pigeon made when it hit our car. And to think my mom was just cruising down the street going 20-25mph. But yea ive got a soft side for animals, and always slow down for the squirrels/animals that cross the street.

When i was 16, I witnessed a mother skunk get hit and killed. Her kits were hovering around her and before I got to them, three of the five were subsequently hit by passer-bye'rs. I only managed to save two, fed them until they reached one year. Luckily, never sprayed nor did they seem like they wanted to spray me (strangers not so lucky)! Let them wander in the nearby woods with an open cage approach, eventually they just left and did not come back.

Also nursed a screach owl back to perfect health from a near death meeting with a blow gun dart. Owls are extremely tame once in a controlled environment. That owl stayed around my house for years! Both were great expierances...

my girlfriend is trying to rehabilitate a deer. As in baby deer.

found it with a broken leg, possibly dislocated.

I really would like help here, nobody local wants to help, as its illegal to care for wild animals or something stupid like that.

b