Discretion: I'm talking about animals dead on the road, here. If you don't like that ... sorry. I'll try not to be graphic, but still, it's not exactly fluffy bunnies. ... Well, not fluffy, anyway.

Well, I hit a deer tonight. I was on my way back from taking somebody back to near Milwaukee, WI (I live in Marshfield, WI ... close to the center, whereas Milwaukee is prettymuch the bottom-right-hand corner), and the weather here sucks. It got warm enough to melt quite a bit of snow, but it also rained, and it was foggier'n hell. I mean, at some points, I couldn't see 100 feet ahead of me. So it was a long, slow drive (stupid people on the roads ... ), but I was about twenty minutes from home when ... Well, I hit a deer. A small doe. (A deer. A female deer.) It walked out from the left side of the road, and I slowed way down and kinda veered to the right, but she decided she wanted to trot into the middle of my lane, and the only way to avoid it would have been to drive into the ditch. So ... I hit a deer.

The bad things are that, obviously, the deer is not in good shape, after being hit with my truck. And I need a new sidelight. (The turn signal, parking light, and part of the headlight are on the corner of my truck, not all contained facing forward.)

The good things are that she took it in the head, which meant not much pain for her. And it didn't do much damage to my truck. And, even though it wasn't a huge deer, if somebody else hit it, or if I hadn't been paying attention, it could have caused a lot more damage, not just to the vehicle, but to the driver and passengers.

So, anyway. It was about a mile from a gas station, in the town I used to live in. So I checked out the damage, checked out the deer (yep, definitely dead), and drove back. I asked the teenage girl behind the counter if she had the number for the DOT or DNR or whoever I needed to call (DOT = Department Of Transportation, DNR = Department of Natural Resources), and she had no clue. But there was a local cop outside filling up his cruiser, so I asked him, and he said that prettymuch all I had to do was let them know. So there, job done.

So far, this brings the total number of of animals I have unintentionally hit with a vehicle in the United States to ... two. Shortly after I graduated high school, I hit a fox. But the thing had a death wish anyway -- I tried to avoid it about four times, and it followed my tire path. But it didn't really do any damage, either.

So ... anyway. That's my story. I feel bad about Christine ... but hey, I suppose it happens.

So what are your stories? Have you ever hit anything? Big? Small? Serious? Let's hear it.