I had planned to get a lot of work done on Sunday, but fate intervened. My poor dog Writer got out of my control when I let him out Sunday morning, went across Prior Station Road to the neighbor’s yard, and jumped out in front of a pickup truck and was hit.
It wasn’t the driver’s fault, I told Writer to sit and stay but he didn’t listen, and even with the driver swerving Writer matched the truck’s movements and what happened was horrible, but not their fault. If the driver of that Toyota pickup sees this, I don’t blame you.
Poor Writer, he took a hard hit. He was bleeding from the ear, and some cuts on his legs. As I write this, I’m waiting for word from vets as to how badly he was hurt. To Writer’s credit, the entire ride up to seek emergency care in Rome he wanted to look out the windows. He tried to lay down on Jess, but it was uncomfortable for him.
I’m sitting and collecting my thoughts about all this just an hour and a half after it happened. I’m not immune to my dogs being hurt badly – my eldest EB broke his hip at the beach one year and required amputation, for example.
Yet like a child, their suffering from injury seems to rip a little more out of my soul.
I never expected to start out the year this way, what with 2020 we all collectively survived I was hopeful that luck, or fate, or karma might be slightly more helpful for the start of 2021. Yet it seems that even with some time to recuperate a bit from the ear during a brief holiday hiatus, my prevailing theory of the world remains: chaos rules our lives, and we may never know or be prepared for what happens next.
We can try all that we want to control our existence, make plans and resolutions to do even better each and every day of our lives. Yet there’s only so much we can prepare for and expect.
So as I start off 2021, I do so now with more caution than ever. I can’t fear what is in store for me next, for I don’t wish to be timid anytime in my life. Yet Sunday morning reminded me once again that the unexpected is just right around the corner, and all you can sometimes do is roll with the punches.
To end this story, I can report that fortunately Writer wasn’t badly hurt, and had a bad ear infection that we didn’t know about. So at least he didn’t break anything. But have mercy, it certainly scared the crap out of me.
Finally, I please ask everyone that travels down Prior Station Road on a regular basis to get to and from Alabama to please slow down a bit. People like me live out that way, and we would like not to get hit by the giant trucks carrying four-wheelers and side-by-sides going to the 4×4 park across the border. I like that people are going out there, don’t get me wrong. I’d just like to feel a little safer about it all.
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