"Doe, a deer, a female deer..."

OK...here is the reason I have not posted in so long...

Actually, there were two of them. This would be a representation of the one that DID make it across the road. The other one, however, had a bit of a run-in with my car.

That is not a picture of my car. But my car did get a nice little owie like that one.

The poor deer. I felt so bad. I couldn't help it, but still I felt bad.

It was a dark and stormy night...well, OK, it wasn't stormy. But it *was* dark. There was a car in front of mine, so I couldn't have my bright lights on. If I had, I probably would have seen the deer in plenty of time. As it happened, the deer jumped out to cross the road precisely between that car and my car. I saw movement as the taillights of the car in front of me faded, and I thought to myself, "What is THAT?"

In the same second, I had that thought, slowed down, and saw for sure what it was. Two young does were crossing the road! I slammed on the brakes and tried to slow down, but couldn't slow down enough to miss the second doe. I hit her with a solid *THUMP*. Fur flew up onto my windshield and sailed in clumps over the top of my car. I felt a bump as the right side of my car rolled over her.

I had almost stopped by that point, but after hitting her and then running over her, I felt that there was no point in stopping, getting out of my car in pitch blackness, and possibly getting run over myself.

I started crying as I drove away. Well, actually, I sobbed all the way home. "I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry," I kept saying over and over again.

That poor thing. She was trying to get away from me, but she didn't quite make it. I read a series of books once about clans of warrior cats living in the woods; they called the road "the Thunderpath."

The first doe must have run for the woods as fast as ever she could, looking for the other deer. "Oh, Mama," I can hear her panting, "I don't know what happened to Aunt Myrtle! We were just crossing the Thunderpath, Mama, the way you taught us. We waited until the car went by and then we started across. But, Mama, there was one right behind the first one! And Aunt Myrtle...she was right behind me! Oh, Mama -- poor Aunt Myrtle!"

The mama deer must have told her daughter what my mum told me..."It happens, dear. It happens all the time. You mustn't feel bad about it."

I still do, though. Now I am commonly known around school, work, and home as "Killer" or "Deer-Killer." I shall never live it down.