When You Get Hit By a Bus

The big Yellow Lab came up from my blind spot. He ran toward our little Yorkie, Hazard. At first I didn’t know if he was friendly. Our Hazzard is tiny. The Lab was a big male. I tugged Hazzard away with his lead and scolded the stranger. Turns out he was not malicious, but a just a little curious.

“Go away. Go on git… Go… go on. Git… Go home.” I said.

He wouldn’t leave. I scolded him with a firm voice and walked rapidly away turning my back on him and pulling Hazzard along with me.

All this happened just after I had crossed busy road while trying to talk on my cell phone.

Finally, it seemed he would leave us alone and I continued on my walk and my phone conversation—until I heard the squeal of tires and a sickening thud. The beautiful dog and run into the road and was hit hard by a mini-van accelerating into our neighborhood.

He led out a yelp and I whirled around just in time to see him awkwardly try to scramble to his feet. It was pitiful to watch. At first he limped around and my mind raced back to the all the dogs that I had and loved as a boy who had been hit and killed by cars. My heart just sank at what I was watching. I didn’t want to see the beautiful dog suffer and die…

But this dog scrambled to his feet and ran around behind the van, across the street, and back and forth in front of a house almost as if he was trying to “walk off” getting hit in the back by a wild pitch. He darted around the yard into the next yard and finally burrowed under a fence to what was obviously his home. He then turned, sat down on his haunches, and watched as if nothing happened. I waited for my heart beat to slow back down and finally finished my walk back home.

When you get hit by a bus, shake it off, go home, regroup, learn your lessons and be glad you survived. Be glad it’s not over yet and you are a smarter dog than you used to be.

Ken Pierpont

Granville Cottage

Riverview, Michigan

April 22, 2017