[jambutty]

About 25 years ago when you could drive down Stansfeld Street in Blackburn, (its one way the other way now) a largish brown dog shot out of a side street and slammed straight into my left wing with it’s head making a huge dent in the wing. It got up and ran off across the road and disappeared down a back.

I parked the car and went for a walk around to see if I could find it, because I was sure it must have been injured but it was nowhere to be seen. I’ve often wondered if it were OK or had run off and died somewhere. I was sure that the dog must have broken its neck or cracked its skull it hit the car that hard.

The only other occasion when an animal and me have clashed is when I was drawing up near my house on Newfield Drive and there were some kids stood on the corner. One fat lad had a kitten in his arms and the other kids were trying to get it off him. He was the area bully so I guess he must have pinched it off them. Anyway as I drew close he let the kitten go and it jumped right in front of me. Even though I was only doing about 15 mph at the time and slammed everything on the poor animal disappeared under my car. Luckily it avoided all wheels but I guess it must have hit its head on the sump or something because it was dead with a floppy head. The kids were heart broken and the fat lad had run off.

On a brighter note I was driving down a country lane and as I rounded a bend there was a duck and a gaggle of ducklings crossing the road in line astern. Naturally I was able to stop because in country lanes you can always expect the unexpected round a corner so my speed was commensurate with the prevailing conditions. That means I wasn’t going so fast.

My hazard flashers went on and I sat back and watched Mrs Duck waddle across the road with the ducklings following behind. I’ll swear that she turned towards me and dipped her head in acknowledgment.

I did have one heart-stopping encounter a few years back and so did a pedestrian. I was coming down Montague Street in Blackburn intending to turn right into King Street. As I rounded the corner I saw this dirty great big Fire Engine on my side of the road coming straight towards me with its lights flashing but no siren. I couldn’t go right because both those lanes were full of cars and things and there was traffic right up my rear end. My only option was to go left and mount the pavement and that’s were the pedestrian came in, or rather went out. He took one look at my looming bonnet and shot off like a scared rabbit. Phew!!!