Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
If anybody is going to stop for wildlife they should be aware of what is behind them. You also don't want to swerve - many motorist are killed every year when they swerve for deer or other animals.
My son and I were just having this conversation.
I think instinct automatically goes on and one tries to prevent hurting an animal. If I could think that split second I know it would be better to just run over the wildlife, but my heart automatically takes over.
In the early summer my Emily cat brought me a live baby squirrel carrying it by the back of its neck like a kitten. I was really tempted to try to raise it as a pet but then I had visions of what it would do to the inside of the house. Can you imagine?
Daughter did know a girl who had an adult pet squirrel and she said the creature climbed her like a tree all the time. Think all that "busyness" would be irritating after a while. . . .
...
If anybody is going to stop for wildlife they should be aware of what is behind them. You also don't want to swerve - many motorist are killed every year when they swerve for deer or other animals.
In trucking this is one of the first things that you learn. No one wants to run over anything living. But if the choice is hitting an animal or colliding with human occupied vehicles, you hit the animal. One should have more empathy for humans, including one's self.
I had a cat who chased them out of our yard front and back. She wouldn't stand for them being on the grounds of our apartment building. She would chase them to the perimeter of the area and then return triumphantly.
Now I have a kitty who is strictly indoors and live in another apartment. No yard but the squirrels and chipmunks who live in the big oak tree just outside my windows keep her on her toes. They sometimes run across the window sill or stop to eat the acorns that fall from the tree. Sometimes the squirrels chase each other up and down the tree trunk. Kitty TV. Gotta love those chipmunks and squirrels.
I think instinct automatically goes on and one tries to prevent hurting an animal. If I could think that split second I know it would be better to just run over the wildlife, but my heart automatically takes over.
I know that it is hard to deliberately hit any animal. The first thing you should do is slow down, if possible. Do not come to an emergency stop or swerve - you could loose control or the driver behind you could slam into you. If you can avoid hitting the animal safely - do so. But that does not work in every case. Deer are the most dangerous animals in the US - they kill more humans than any other animal. But it is not that they attack us; it is our reaction to try to avoid hitting them. Slam on your brakes or swerve and you will end up as a casualty. Your brain can overpower your instinct - if you have played this out in your mind before it happens. Hopefully it will never happen - but there is no such thing as never.
I live on roads that I have routinely stopped for wildlife (mainly turkeys and deer) almost every time I come or go. Most of these stops are within the last mile and a half of our house. I went for 20 years without hitting one deer and then, in one year, I hit three. They were completely unavoidable - the deer jumped out of nowhere into the road. All three times I had the same old truck and it did very little damage to the vehicle. My feeling was that it was because coyotes where in my area and spooked the deer into the road?
One mistake many drivers make with deer is that they watch the deer that crosses the road. The problem is that deer are social creatures. It isn't the one that crossed the road in front of you that gets you; it's the ones behind that deer. Always slow down if you see a deer cross and prepare for a second or third to cross.
With squirrels; when the nuts are falling off our trees; then more squirrels die on our roads. They are looking for a bite and don't really have vehicles on their minds.
Well, first I had to chase it around the kitchen until it ran into the bathroom and I was able to corner it and pick it up by the scruff of its neck. Then I couldn't resist snuggling it next to my heart for a few minutes.
I waited until I thought Emily had lost interest and gone elsewhere and I sneaked out the front door, took a tiptoe between the neighbor's houses and placed him on the bark of the pine tree where he scooted back up to his home.
When I turned around to go into the back door of my house there sat Emily right behind me watching. I suppose that's why she hasn't brought me anymore baby squirrels this year.
Reg squirrels can be very destructive, but I still think they're cute. I love chipmunks! The are the sweetest and easy to tame. In our old house, we had flying squirrels who lived nearby and would come to our bird feeder at night to eat. They are awesome!! So cute with their big eyes and soft looking fur. If I could, I'd love to have one for a pet.
"And I said, I don't care if they lay me off either, because I told, I told Bill that if they move my desk one more time, then, then I'm, I'm quitting, I'm going to quit. And, and I told Don too, because they've moved my desk four times already this year, and I used to be over by the window, and I could see the squirrels, and they were married, but then, they switched from the Swingline to the Boston stapler, but I kept my Swingline stapler because it didn't bind up as much, and I kept the staples for the Swingline stapler and it's not okay because if they take my stapler then I'll set the building on fire... "
Or Tom T. Hall's lyrics: " I love leaves in the wind, pictures of my friends, birds in the world, and squirrels."
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
