Last week I went out shopping and I was stopped at an intersection near a freeway entrance. There was a black whippet on the loose, kind of darting in and out of the street. Then he trotted into stopped traffic and reached the median which was covered in brush. Instantly I knew what was going to happen. The line of cars to my side got their light to turn left, and I just knew that the whippet was going to dart back out into traffic, and that there was no possible way the car turning left would be able to see him. Unfortunately, he did. The driver slammed on her brakes but there really was no way she could have stopped in time--he just darted right in front of her. Luckily she'd been going slowly, having just cleared the intersection, and had slowed down. The whippet was hit, but he quickly jumped back to his feet and started trotting away. He wasn't limping and didn't appear to be hurt, but I burst into sobs anyway. A guy in a truck in the turn lane beside me pulled across our traffic against his light and turned his blinkers on and started to follow the dog slowly, but the dog darted back across the street and headed the other direction. At that point I had already cleared the intersection, and left him behind.
I was really shaken up and very sad when I got home. I had to cuddle with Scout and Digory for a while, and then I said some prayers that the whippet would be okay. About 2 days later, I think, Kevin said, "was the whippet you saw black?" I said that he was. Our neighborhood (actually a large-ish area of historic homes) has an email list that Kevin reads. He said that someone from the list had spotted the whippet at a local park and were contacting a neighbor who had whippets. The neighbor turned out to have 2 gray whippets, not a black one, so this guy was truly homeless. And then the good news! Someone was able to get ahold of whippet rescue and they caught the pup and delivered him to safe hands. YAY!!
Posted by Shelby at June 17, 2007 11:44 PM