To the guy in the black truck who hit our golden retriever on Almon Street, October 29, 2010:
Accidents happen. He ran out of the house, we couldn’t grab him and he ran in front of your truck. This could have happened to anyone. We get that and we understand. I tried to give him CPR, but it didn’t matter. He was gone. He didn’t make it to the vet. He died immediately after you hit him. But you wouldn’t know that, because you didn’t stick around. You backed up and left. You didn’t say you were sorry. The cars in back of you stopped. But you didn’t.
You couldn’t have saved him, and nobody could. But you could have had the decency to at least get out of your truck and say “I’m sorry”. He was like our child. He was my husband’s best friend and my son’s buddy. He was a fast runner, loved to swim, and went after sticks like it was no one’s business. He loved adventures and was the best damn cuddler you’d ever know.
We don’t hate you, and we don’t wish you any ill will. But grow some balls. You took away our best friend and you couldn’t even be grown up enough to get out of your truck. Thanks…—skingston.arch@gmail.com
This article appears in Nov 4-10, 2010.
that’s very sad, sorry to hear about your beloved pet^^
Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. So sorry for your loss. >: (
I wouldn’t take it too personally OP, to be honest I would have done the same thing. Yeah, you may have been calm and worried about the poor dog, on the other hand you could be a raving lunatic blaming me for your mistake. I wouldn’t have stopped to find out.
Poor Marley.
I’m sorry for your loss OB.
Ooh that’s awful OP :'(! My kitty sends kisses <3
Same thing happened to my dog when I was a child, so I feel your loss. I would have stopped – but then again if I ever hit a dog I’m sure I would be bawling and would have to stop anyway. 🙁
And More, sometimes dogs are just dogs – they hear something and go running without a second thought. When my dog was hit, she was literally licking my grandmother’s face one minute and then bolted across the road when she heard an animal or something. No matter what precautions you put in place (special collars, fences, leashes) every dog is going to get away once in awhile. You just have to hope they’re not going in the direction of the road and that there’s not a vehicle coming along.
Again OP, very sorry for the loss of your pet.
More, as numerous people have said numerous times, it’s not what you say but how you say it. Do you really have to be a deliberate asshole?
You’re an asshole More, plain and simple.
I suspect it might have been a different story if the guy had stuck around. Why do you need his sorry? It won’t make any difference now. I’m not trying to rag on you OP, just putting it out there at sorry will not bring Skippy back.
Wow, More… I bet your mom is super proud of the compassionate human being you have become.
OP sorry for your loss
More; You are more than an asshole – you are a completely ignorant idiot.
There hundreds of different types of dogs, each with their own quirks, behaviors, and faults. I have worked with rescue dogs and purebreds for months who despite professional and owner training, supervision and even electronic fences cannot be controlled or respond on command. Some breeds have it in their DNA to run, others are too young or damaged from previous owners or experiences to halt on command.
Your experience as a dog trainer may have produced a series of roboticly controlled dogs, but yours is not the only experience out there. Rot in hell you ignorant son of an untrained bitch.
Sometimes dogs can get spooked or frightened at the smallest things! More, if you can train your dogs to sit and stay while it feels scared or that something is going to hurt it, then good on you I guess.
To the people who gave their respects to our situation over the loss of Gus, we thank you.
To those who have judged us negatively and have made assumptions about what we are like as people and dog owners, I’d just like to say this. Your assumptions and negative judgements are completely invalid and I am sorry that your conclusions have led to that. Accidents happen, which is what I said in my post. The only ill will that I hold against the driver is that he didn’t stop. He didn’t say I’m sorry. It’s a life. Whether it’s a human or an animal, it’s a life. Someone said that it may have been a different story if the guy had of stopped, insinuating that we would have been pissed and blamed him and acted as lunatics. Completely wrong, but I can see how that may happen in other circumstances with other people. But again, it’s a life. I’d stop. It’s only right. To those who have drawn conclusions and blamed us for being poor dog owner’s, I’ll say this. Gus was still a pup. He was just under two years. We have trained him, but he still gets excited under certain circumstances, which is what happened that night. People came over and were bringing things in the house. He saw his chance and he took it. He wanted to play and it was dark. He darted into the street and just like that it was done. Someone said it could happen to any dog even those with training and that’s exactly what happened.
Be cautious before drawing your conclusions. We loved Gus like he was our child. If we didn’t we would never have taken him for runs to the park every night, taken him to the beach to swim on the weekends, taken him to the cottage, or all of the things that we’ve done with him over the past two years. And we wouldn’t have brought him to the vet that night, we would never have cried over his body, we wouldn’t have picked him up the next day and taken him to the cottage. We wouldn’t have dug a hole under his favourite tree and thrown in his favourite toys. If we were bad owners we wouldn’t be crying right now. We would be going about our day like any other, and not mourning the loss of a family member.
The reason why I posted the original message was not to get sympathy from random people or to hear about why we are such bad owners. My intentions were to hopefully get a message to the person who hit Gus to say: hitting him was an accident but leaving was wrong. We didn’t get a license plate so we will never know who did it. But I hope he/she has a heart and is at least sorry.
For people like “More”, I know you’re getting some back lash over your comments, and although we don’t agree with them I would like to say that I hope someday you’ll be able to see the good in people and get rid of your negativity. For all the shitty people out there, there are more good and we just happen to fall into the good category. Try to recognize that before you attach negative thoughts to unfortunate circumstances. Thanks…
Best to all and again thanks for the well wishes.
six peas, the loss of your dog has hurt, no doubt.
a 2 year old dog is no longer a puppy.
I’ve had beagle’s, a shepard, lab’s , a samoyed, a Westie which led me to my last dog which died of old age last year, & that one was a Yorkie .
Not one of them was a robot, each of them had their own personality, & idosyncrasies I have never met a dog that couldn’t be trained, some were definately quicker than others… but they are all trainable, out here in the country there are so many people moving out here lately & many have dogs that are tied up day after day, when you ask the owner why don’t you ever take them for a walk or a run…its always the same story, “they don’t listen”.” they runaway”
Which is such an inexcusable excuse. My neighbors dog had its head crushed by a gravel truck on Thursady last week, out in front of my house ,absolutely 100% the owners fault. That truck driver didn’t stop…I don’t blame him.
WHy do I not have another dog ?
Because at this tme I do not have the time to devote to it, not that I won’t in the future, I just don’t have the time right now. Which makes it unfair to any dog I might choose.
I pegged you OP as one of the many who are like that , & at 2 years old that dog shouldn’t have took off. Get excited, absolutely ….run away -Never !
Sorry to hear about your dog. Dogs truly become part of the family and when they’re tragically taken away, it can be very hard to deal with.
The guy that hit your dog maybe have had other reasons for bailing… he may have been too upset about it. I would be devastated if I killed someone’s dog (even if it wasn’t my fault), but I would hope I’d have enough composure to stick around.
That guy was a coward, plain and simple.
I can’t believe people are actually insinuating that the OP is a bad owner… :-/ Accidents happen, people. And a dog is a dog. Unless you have the best training in the world, it’s still probably going to dart off on you when a squirrel runs by it or something. Not everyone has professionally trained dogs. That being said, I can’t believe anyone would say such harsh things about this; it’s not being about being honest, it’s about being an asshole who just wants to be an asshole, in my opinion. The dog clearly meant a lot to them.
OP, I’m sorry to hear about your loss. I had a similar situation happen to me when I was a child; my brothers were playing with our beagle, Charlie, in the front yard and Charlie shot off into the street (it was a backroad, too, so not much traffic); a driver hit him and took off. Didn’t stop. The worst part about it is that he didn’t die right away and we couldn’t afford to save him, so he had to suffer for a little while (and I’m not talking about days here for all the people who think we were inhumane and kept him in pain for a long time) before we were able to have him put down at the vet… very unfortunate.
At the same time, I can sort of see why the driver might have driven off. If I hit someone else’s dog, I am not sure how I would react. Would I stop? I don’t know. Most people, unfortunately, would not be as forgiving, so I am not too surprised he did not stop. I would hope he cared, and if he sees this, maybe he’ll send his apology.
So sorry to hear about Gus. That’s pretty greasy to not stop, if only to offer some assistance and an apology. It sounds like a series of unfortunate events. Who can you blame?
And More, I have known the OP for several years, and her husband half as long. They are great people and the dog was well behaved, if spirited. Stop being abusive or I’ll sick the Mod on you and then you’ll have to go back to crushing cigs out on your arm for pleasure instead of unjustly attacking someone you don’t even know.
I think the situation sucks but I also don’t think its fair to be asking for an apology. The OP states several times it wasn’t the drivers fault, so why should he apologize? He might have been shaken up, or scared of being assaulted or any number of reasons. The dog ran out into traffic, it sucks, its unfortunate but it was no ones fault and no one should have to apologize. I’m sorry for your families loss but I also seriously doubt the composure that you are claiming to have. You are asking/ demanding an apology for an accident where the driver was not at fault. Also, in your very long reply you talk about how “We didn’t get a license plate so we will never know who did it. But I hope he/she has a heart and is at least sorry.”… why would you need a license plate if you weren’t going to press charges… etc… What would you do with the information if you had gotten it? I think that it sucks but to be honest I probably wouldn’t have stopped either…
Sorry to hear about your dog 🙁
Sorry to hear about Gus, OP. It would break my heart is anything ever happened to my furry friends…
Hey more, if someone accidently ran you over and drove off could we say that it was because you weren’t trained properly on how to cross a street? or that you were old enough to know that the red hand ment stop but you didn’t cause you’re an asshole?
“If sprem couldn’t swim & an egg wasn’t receptive without a tiny little bit of participation on the part of the participants…these type people would never breed…which IMO would be perfect.”
Guess your mother didn’t get that memo dickhead!!!
Sorry for you loss OP