People in small towns use their local newspaper like a really big newsletter. Letters to the Editor primarily consist of "Thank you for your support of the high school fundraiser last Friday night...Thank you to all the community participants in the local golf tournament... Someone left a dog tied to my car the other day...How can we help the local school board? etc, etc, etc" We don't have earth shattering issues around here to deal with so the paper becomes the town bulletin board. I've always thought it was a little, well, small town, but today I became one of those submitting something to the editorial page. My piece was short and to the point. It'll run this Wednesday or next Wednesday - they didn't really know. I dropped it off about an hour after the incident that precipitated it.....
I was running a bit late this morning because I couldn't find my keys. I found another set and got in the car to leave. As I drove down the street I noticed a big dog limping along and I was curious what his story might be. As I was contemplating his situation I inadvertently became the catalyst for disaster in another animal's life. The little black cat ran out into the street and before I knew it he was under my tires. In a mere second I watched his death throes in my rear view mirror. I went back to do what I could, which was nothing other than calling animal control and gently pulling him to the side of the street. He didn't have a collar so I don't know where he came from. I felt perfectly terrible. The last, and first, animal I ever ran over was a misguided raccoon on Schuster Parkway in Tacoma about 11PM one night on my way home from Seattle University. What a dreadful thing it is to run over an animal.
Not really knowing what to do next I thought about the editorial page. I whipped out a short letter describing what happened and offered my apology to the unknown cat owner. I don't know if the person will see it, but I hope they do. It's sad enough to lose a pet, but not knowing what happened is even worse.
Today I was grateful to live in a small enough place that has a public forum big enough to voice my feeble apology.
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