The animal god called my name.

There's a certain intersection on the other side of town that I try to avoid. For some reason the light stays red for an interminable (seemingly) amount of time and I have neither the time or patience to sit there and wait. So I have developed an alternative plan. I take a shortcut through a neighborhood in the vicinity. A quick right before the intersection, then a left down a quiet residential street, another right and I'm back on the road to the swamp and everything is cool.

So I'm driving down this residential road yesterday morning and I notice a male mallard waddling from the middle of the road toward the curb. I slow down and let him take his time so he doesn't have to expend the energy required for flight. He gets to the curb and that's when I noticed the female in the road. She was struggling toward the curb also, but at a much slower rate because of an apparent broken leg and wing. It was really sad. She kind of hopped along, struggling toward the curb. I silently cursed the person who had hit her in the first place. One of my pet peeves is to see all these dead animals on the road, knowing that 95% of them were killed by speeding, inattentive drivers. Of course, something else may have caused her injuries, but I remain confident it was a crazy driver.

Fast forward to about 1/2 hour ago. I once again approach the aforementioned intersection and head for my shortcut. But I remembered the poor duck and wondered if a fox had had an easy lunch. I drove down the street slowly, looking left and right for the duck. Didn't see it anywhere. Then, before I realized it, there was the duck in the middle of the road again. I saw it so late, and because of the filtered light it blended it the road quite well, I had no chance. Neither did she. I ran her over. A direct hit with my right front tire.

What could I do? I sure as hell couldn't save the thing. I looked in the mirror and saw the flattened pile of feathers and beak fragments and I sighed and headed home.

Do you think the ducks gods called on me to put this poor bird out of its misery? I really feel quite bad about this incident and need some comforting. Someone please offer me some kind words.