I hit a dog with a car today. Understand, this was not exactly a planned action. I was driving out to pick up some dinner, some time after dark, and as I was driving along Woodley (between Linden and Division), SUDDENLY DOG. I slowed down quite a bit, there was a sort of thump, and there was a dog running away off to the left of my car. I have no idea how hard the dog got hit, or whether it was seriously injured, or just bruised, or what. I didn’t go check; on my list of clever actions, you will not find “chasing an unfamiliar dog, possibly injured, across other peoples’ lawns”.
Just a reminder to all those dog owners out there: The leash laws are not there because we hate your pets and don’t want them to experience the joy of chasing cars. They are there because we on the whole rather like your pets, and don’t want them to experience the joy of catching cars. (Or small children. Or whatever.) Dogs are really clever, but they are simply not equipped to successfully navigate streets at night; their evolutionary heritage has not included things which have headlights and move at over 30 miles an hour, and outmass a dog by forty-to-one.
On the one hand, I feel bad about presumably injuring something that was probably someone’s pet. Especially because, the above reminder notwithstanding, it’s quite possible that the dog was not intentionally let off the leash; they’re pretty good at getting away. On the other hand, it’s really hard to figure out what I should do to avoid such circumstances. Should I drive at 10mph on city streets at all times in case of dogs?