To Swerve or not to swerve

To swerve or not to swerve that is the question we posted on facebook with an overwhelming response leaning towards swerve. Do anything to avoid hitting the dog was the theme heard over and over again. I know this song; it plays in my head every time I see a pet heading towards the street. But what rings as loud is my father’s voice teaching me that as much as I do not want to be the one to run over a pet, you are not supposed to swerve. Swerving can cause an accident, injure other human life and even if there was no one around swerving can cause your own vehicle to roll. I can hear my father’s voice telling me as I learned to drive, you kill the animal not yourself. Now before all of us pet lovers get in an uproar. I am not suggesting you go running over pets. And if you can stop remember that intermediate braking gives you more control as slamming on your breaks can lock your wheels and your ability to control your vehicle. See how easy it would be to lose control. It’s something to think about what to do in an emergency situation. So that when that time comes your response may be a little bit more automatic. Today I saw such an accident we were in the left lane on the Harley with the sidecar and a driver of the van was in the right. A little Benji type dog with a collar and bandana runs heading for the street. We saw it and then the next thing we saw was the van up in smoke slamming on its breaks and coming right towards US! Scared the piss out of me, I don’t mean to use language but I know my Human thought we were dying to. We were so lucky, the van straightened out and yes hit the dog and a human tragedy was avoided. The van did not pull over, but we did. We pulled the dog out of the street and over to the side of the road. We got a baby blanket out of our first aid kit and covered it up. We took the number off the collar and called the owners. She was hysterical. We told her it was really really bad and let her know if she couldn’t deal with it or didn’t have someone who could to call the animal control. By then there were others there and we left them in the hands of people they knew. OVER WHELMING this day was. But that is how it goes. Life is not always kind. It does not always make sense. But it is reason must be for a greater good than we can see. It made me want to come home and tell our story and bring up a very touchy topic, because today someone’s fuzzy baby is gone. But my Human and I are still alive. Don’t swerve. Emma Zen & Debra Jo