Commuting - first collision...

Lucky for me it was with a Squirrel. The squirrel on the other hand didn't fair to well.
I was going pretty fast down a steep hill and saw a couple of Squirrels playing around on the sidewalk, plenty of distance, it was a side street so I was kinda close to the center line. This thing must have had a suicide wish, it went straight for my front wheel as I went by. No chance to slow down

All I could think about was all of those pictures I've seen of squirrels lodged between the fork, or destroyed wheels and endoed riders. I braced my self for a disaster but I rolled right over it. Turned around to make sure it wasn't suffering, and then continued on my way to work. I'm no fan of squirrels but I did feel bad.

There are plenty more squirrels in the world, I wouldn't worry too much.

ouch.

Last thing I hit was a mouse. I kinda hoped I'd missed it because it kept running after I'd rolled over it, but I was in no rush so went back to check on it. Well it was still alive but it wasn't trying to get away away so I picked it up, it felt lumpy and there was blood coming out it's mouth. Within a few seconds it's breathing got faint, it's heart stopped, and then it got all flaccid. Made me feel completely rotten, I really should have just kept going.

I've always missed small critters that I've tried to hit, but there's been lots of near-misses when I've tried to avoid them, and a chance I'll roll right over them. My theory is they have a sort of self-preservation mechanism that makes them harder prey to catch so that it works out making them hard to hit with a bicycle, but when trying to not hit them they don't know how to react.

I hit a praire dog when I lived in Colorado. I was on my mountain bike riding one of the numerous paved paths. The praire dogs very commonly dart across the path as you ride, but they are usually pretty quick and get out of your way in enough time. Well, except for one guy. Poor guy did combat rolls off the trail after I hit him. I am just glad he didn't go into my spokes. That could have been messy.

Lucky for me it was with a Squirrel. The squirrel on the other hand didn't fair to well.
I was going pretty fast down a steep hill and saw a couple of Squirrels playing around on the sidewalk, plenty of distance, it was a side street so I was kinda close to the center line. This thing must have had a suicide wish, it went straight for my front wheel as I went by. No chance to slow down

All I could think about was all of those pictures I've seen of squirrels lodged between the fork, or destroyed wheels and endoed riders. I braced my self for a disaster but I rolled right over it. Turned around to make sure it wasn't suffering, and then continued on my way to work. I'm no fan of squirrels but I did feel bad.

What would you do if he was suffering? This I would pay to see. Whack him with your frame pump? ;)

I jest, but I'm probably due. I've had at least one near miss with a rodent almost every ride for the last couple of weeks.

I ran over a lemming once, but I didn't feel too bad, since it was on its way to jump off the edge of a cliff.

anyone remember that seinfeld. I thought we had a deal with the pigeons & squirrels

I'm going to have to send away for some extra special small veterinary tools. they're very expensive and the squirrel is going to need several months of care afterwards.

near the end of last summer, i was riding on a fast single track in the middle of nowhere with a friend. he had just got infront of me in a wide area of the track when i saw a deer, yes a big doe, on a collision course with us. i screamed heads up and jumped on the brakes, he did the same but it was to late, he slid sideways into this deer. he rolled right over the back of the deer, one of the funniest things i had ever seen once i realized he was ok and getting up. the deer was pretty stunned but seemed to be moving ok so we let it run off.
on the down side, on the same trail a woman hit a deer a few weeks later and was pretty banged up from her incounter.

What would you do if he was suffering? This I would pay to see. Whack him with your frame pump? ;)

I jest, but I'm probably due. I've had at least one near miss with a rodent almost every ride for the last couple of weeks.
I hit a jackrabbit once. I turned around to see if it was okay, only to see that I made it a parapalegic, it tried to run away with only its front two legs.

I felt bad so I went back, found a big rock, crushed its head. Not much to do since I didn't want to see it suffer. The crows, maggots and earthworms have to eat something.

Circle of life...

The other day I was commuting at 6:30am and saw something scurrying across the street ahead of me -- it was an armadillo. Here in Texas it's pretty common to see them dead on the side of the road, so seeing a live one for a change I pulled over and watched it cross. No wonder they get hit by cars so often; they're slow and I think they're blind -- this one would have run right into me when I was stopped, if I hadn't moved out of the way!

Please God don't allow the PETA people to read this post. They'll be calling for our heads. :-)

I pureed a bird once - I was going 20+ through a sweeping corner and a bird tried to fly through the spokes. It exploded into a cloud of feathers. I turned around and tried to find it (put it out of it's misery) but there was just chunks left... including a couple small chunckies & feathers stuck in the spokes.

I did run over another bird on purpose recently. it's (dumb) parents had built their nest on a freeway overpass. Birdie fell out, prolly got tagged by car a few seconds before I got there, and was miserably fluttering a wing, flopping on the ground. The parents were circling around nearby. I made sure to run over it's head to put it out of the suffering.