SultanOfSwing

Badger and fox can be switched in as needed

Cats gonna cat.

I've yet to run into a scorpion in person. I'm kind of OK with that.

macliam

Sorry about the quality - taken through glass.
Not chicken, just careful........

SultanOfSwing

Big nope from me.

zzrmark

Roadkill guilt doesn't tend to last long after the buggers have cost you a few bob fixing up the damage, although my mother still frets about the day she ran over a lamb...

I used to worry about deer when out on the bike at nights but the only one I ever hit was in a car. The bas#$rd jumped over a bank, into the road and took out my headlamps on one side and dinked the bonnet, then bounded off over the same bank.
I hit a pheasant whilst driving a 13 tonne box waggon, assume it died as I couldn't find it, the truck's windscreen looked like an elephant had parked it's arse on the passenger side and I was only doing 30, God only knows the mess it would make at 70.

The missus was a little unhappy when I ran over a tree rat a few months back.

However, my most 'interesting' roadkill was a rabbit, I have no idea how it didn't kill me. I was descending one of the interesting hills going into Totnes and doing about 40 at the moment of impact. There was blood and guts everywhere, it made a right mess, I even got it in my mouth.


Did I not mention that I was on my bicycle at the time...
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caretaker

Nice story, and just in time for Easter.

I'm going up north to give a friend a ride today, about 700 miles round trip, and I'll have to watch for animals. I heard there was a moose running around in the city last week though, (it's becoming more common in recent years) and people have hit them in town, so it can happen anywhere.

dc koop

If you hit a deer going at a fair speed chances are it will end up going through the windshield

macliam

Back in the day, my cousin in Ireland was sued for "hitting a cow"!
I'm not sure if you have the same thing in the north, Sultan - but the country roads in the south-west are often considerably lower than the level of the fields on each side and this cow broke through a hedge and dropped onto the bonnet of his car!!!
The cow sustained a broken leg and the car was pretty much banjaxed, as you'll imagine, but the law (at that time, don't know about now...) said that any collision between a vehicle and a cow was the driver's fault - so you can imagine how my cousin felt, car buggered and no insurance to claim against but his own - and then a bill for the cost of the cow!!
He didn't even get a steak out of it!!

Steerpike

I still remember (when reminded by a thread like this ) an incident back in the early 80s when I saw a cat in the road in London. It had already been hit by another car and was doing all kinds of contortions. Very unpleasant memory.

But on the flip side, I'm reminded of this timeless site. The first time I saw this, I literally cried with laughter and could not read through the tears.
"Missing Missy"

I used to know a graphic designer at one company who was exactly like this guy!

Steerpike

There's some debate about whether it's appropriate to hit the brakes, though you are going to do that regardless due to instinct. The first speeding ticket I ever got in California resulted in a sobering lecture from the CHP guy; he asked, rhetorically, if I knew what happened if I'm doing 80mph and a deer runs out in front of me; he said first thing you do is hit the brakes, which causes your car to nose-dive and take the deer's legs out, which then flies in through your windshield. The theory is, you'd be better off not hitting the brakes and hitting the animal square on at the mid-section, and less likely to end up through the windshield. But as I said, there's no way you are going to 'not brake' anyway!

PS not a bad reason to have an SUV - rides higher and less likely to have animals entering through the windshield!

caretaker

No debate among anyone who's ever commuted through countryside heavily populated by deer. Hit the brakes as hard as you can and you might not hit the deer. Read the link I posted earlier from National Post; they discuss the difference between moose and deer and why it might help to release your brakes at the last second if you hit a moose. I hit a Whitetail square in the grill of my VW Rabbit, and if it had been at the top of it's arc as it jumped it would have come through the windshield. I missed the first one by inches, but the second one wasn't as lucky. I didn't have time to touch the brakes. After you hit one, you see them everywhere for quite awhile.
Edit: You could always try speeding up in the hopes that you'll be out of the way before the deer gets in front of you but I suggest making me your beneficiary before trying it out.

Steerpike

Literally minutes after reading your post above, I left the house and saw this ... had to wait for the guys to decide which way they wanted to go!




Cute little things!

caretaker

Awwww.

SultanOfSwing

See what I mean, they just wander right out and expect you to rearrange your entire day on their whims.

And don't be fooled by those goslings, they'll grow up to be arseholes just like their parents. I'm forming an alliance with the crows, just in case things get serious.

caretaker

The one on the right already appears to be goose-stepping. Actually they all seem to have it.

Pulaski

And those arseholes will $4!t all over everything, everywhere they go!