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McCook Gazette
Letter to the Editor

Thoughtless drivers

Thursday, September 10, 2009

Dear Editor,

I have had two dogs, a Lab and a Saint Bernard, get hit on our county road in three days!

We live miles from the closest house and most of the traffic on our road is from our farming neighbors. I have had dogs hit in the past, and people just don't seem to care about the dog or its owners after they've hit it.

Of the dogs I've had hit, not once has the person stopped to tell me they have hit my dog! They are just cowards and drive off as if nothing has happened.

I think this takes a very heartless person to not come get the owner and/or help for the animal that may be suffering.

Now don't misunderstand, I certainly do NOT expect someone to risk human life to avoid hitting my dog. I just wish people had a little more compassion for the animal they've injured or killed, and the people who love them!

Now the two dogs hit this week will be OK, thanks to the quick response of the vets and their staff that I love so much (you know who you are!!), even coming nearly 15 miles out of town to pick up my Lab that was hit Saturday night.

A late-night/early morning to save the Phoebe, the lab, and another evening was spent with Zuess, the St. Bernard on Tuesday. I hope we will get to bring them home by this weekend, to a yard that will soon be equipped with an underground fence, something I should have done years ago, I know.

I do love my dogs very much. All day long and every night they spend their lives in a very large, shady, kennel, with a thick layer of straw in the winter months. They only get out for a few hours each night when we are home to love them and play with them.

All of my dogs, cats and horses are spoiled pets. We love them each dearly. They are part of our family. PLEASE people, when you are driving on a county road and approaching a house, slow down! You never know what might be in the road ahead of you -- a cat, a dog, maybe even a child! If you do hit something, have a heart and get the animal some help that may save their life, not to mention the heartache of the owner having to bury a beloved member of their family.

Please be a courteous neighbor or passerby, just as if you were driving through a neighborhood in town. I do not know who hit either of my dogs, but they know who they are! You don't hit a 90-pound and 140-pound dog without noticing. I hope you feel terrible knowing you left a dog severely injured!

Angela Gray,

McCook

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  • Solid woven wire fence a hundred yards either way from the dog's yard will mostly keep them off the road, but cats disregard such silliness.

    As a boy in Oklahoma's southern Osage, we lived on an arrow straight ten-mile section of road, which "Teed" at the west corner of our place, about a third of a mile west of the ranch driveway.

    Seven miles east lived a family of 18 children in total. The eldest two years older than my father, the youngest two years older than me.

    That young man inherited a 1941 V-8 Ford sedan from an older sister who became a WAVE and with help from brothers "souped it up."

    Soon he was leading am every morning "race team" down that straightaway, up and down hills, passing our house at about 75-90 MPH.

    The east end of our ranch started atop a relatively high ridge, with the road dropping to a creek bridge, then immediately up over a sandstone outcropping to the hilltop in front of our house, down to another creek to the west, with a square turn either way.

    It required only a small adjustment to the roads upslope toward our house and that sandstone outcrop became a launching ramp.

    The work on that road only required about four hours late one Sunday for a buddy and I.

    Monday morning the routine race team roared through, went airborne at the outcrop, with each car landing with blown tires, cracked chassis, broken suspensions and glass, with throughly jolted drivers and passengers.

    After that, we were able to leave the dogs out at night, without remembering to lock them up in the evening and let them our after the race passed.

    It is amazing how little effort is required on an unsurfaced road to create a series of effective speed bumps on either side of a rural home.

    In reality, about $40 of portland cement, with a little sand, gravel and part of a barrel of water will do the job, creating a solid jolt to suspensions.

    Just advise your county road superintendent in advance and ask for a couple of "Speed Bump" signs to put up.

    -- Posted by HerndonHank on Thu, Sep 10, 2009, at 5:07 PM
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