i'm traumatized!!!!

this morning i witnessed a car running over a raccoon at 60mph.

poor little raccoon was strolling across a very busy highway and a car in front of me slammed right into it. little Raccie was flipped over on his back, violently writhing around in pain on the ground.

traveling at such speeds, you literally have milliseconds to react. the car who first hit little Raccie was only 2 cars ahead of me. the car behind it then hit it a second time. and little Raccie was still alive, still thrashing around.

then comes my little car.

i hit my brakes to slow down enough to maneuver into the left shoulder so that i wouldn't be the third person to hit it. but i didn't want to slam my brakes so hard that i cause folks behind me to have to suddenly brake. it wouldn't make sense to cause a 10-car collision and kill up a bunch of folks to avoid hitting an animal.

so i braked, swerved a bit to my left but didn't.....quite....clear.....the body. i felt a slight thumping under my tires. though i gave it my best effort, i believe i still ended up running over at least his tail.

i feel SO AWFUL. i've seen plenty of dead animals on the side of the road, but i've never seen one actually get hit! and i've NEVER hit an animal myself! so to see that car slam into the little raccoon's body, and to see him writhing around on the ground like that has scarred me for life! i seriously can't get that image out of my head.

and to top it all off, to know that i hit him too and contributed....ugh. sigh. i feel so badly. i hope he died quickly and isn't still suffering in pain out there all alone. i'm so sorry little Raccie. :-(((((

and i hope you all still like me, even though i'm a co-conspirator in the death of a little critter.