Death

Last night I went through hell to drive to Anaheim to pick up my friend Jenn, her husband Chris, and her stepson Will. I haven't seen her in around 9 years, and it was fantastic catching up with her.

We even had a blast as stupid me got lost (my goal was to take them somewhere out of Anaheim, since they're going to spend the rest of their trip there anyway), had dinner...good times...

Coming back, driving on Beach blvd somewhere in Huntington Beach/Garden Grove/Westminster, late at night, two cars in front of me start swerving.

So I slam on the brakes and start edging to the right lane.

Jenn asks "what's that noise?" (it was this high pitched constant squeeling yelping noise) and I start to say "Oh it's my brakes..." (because my brakes have issues, don't ask)...

Suddenly she says "OH MY GOD IT'S A DOG!" and I see that the car two cars up had hit this big pit bull. My initial reaction was that of when I see any roadkill...like it makes me sad, upset, but what can I do....

And then my brain clicked....dog barking...cars swerving...this just happened...that dog is ALIVE.......

So I park my immediately in the right lane of this massive road (ha right in front of a homeless guy), me and Chris jump out of the car and run to the middle of the road, where the dog is.

the f*cking bastard that hit the dog drove off. I hope someone decides to douse him with gas and light him on fire one day...just for fun

Fortunately a couple in an SUV stopped their car right in front of the dog, so at least there was clearance. Poor guy was panting, and bleeding, and me and the couple were trying to call random numbers...I mean, what do you do? I didn't know the area, I couldn't just take the dog to the nearest animal hospital. So the girl is trying to call the local police, and we're realizing we're not 100% which city we were in (it was Beach and 19th street, if anyone cares)...the guy is trying to call animal control, I'm trying to call animal control...

And all we're getting are answering machines.

I so badly wanted to let that dog know that SOMEONE cared...maybe the jackass who hit him didn't, but WE did...and we all knew the dog was going to die...

...that dog BELONGED to someone, it had a harness on, possibly because it broke free from it's fence or whatever.

Finally a dude from AAA across the street came over, and through the mix of emotions he was saying how a vet was needed to really put the dog to sleep (or something to that effect...at this point I was calling Nicole B, because if anyone knows what to do when it comes to animal emergencies, it's her)....the dog at this point was pretty much dead, if not a death's door....

...all this time we're still in the middle of the road, causing massive traffic...

So the AAA guy, grabs the dog's harness and DRAGS him to the median strip.

I swear I almost projectile vomitted.

The couple at this point got back in their SUV and drove off....and the AAA guy was saying something, Chris heard it I wasn't paying attention because I was trying to wrap myself around the fact this dog had died...the girl in the SUV said he was still alive 'cause his tail twitched, but if you know anything about death then you know that there's still serious electricity that goes through the body and twitching happens even half an hour after death.

Eventually we ran back to the car, poor Jenn and Will (she was a little freaked that I had parked right next to a homeless guy in the ghetto)....and Will kept saying how sad he was for the dog...and Chris was like "I can't believe you got out of the car" (this was the first time I met him, I get the impression he thought I was a little too girly girl for that type of behavior)...

We made the best of the rest of the night (becuase it took forever to get home, long story), and overall I had a wonderful night...

...but I can't stop thinking about that dog.

the blood in the middle of the road was so THICK...it looked like paint....

There's few times in my life i've seen an animal die.

I saw a ton of cows and camels get slaughtered by knife (yep, good ol' Ramadhan...and Pakistan...because i'm old skool like that), and I remember seeing my uncle cut up the meat and there were PILES of cow meat and they were MOVING and I was like "uh...wtf..." (I was around 12 at the time) and being the doctor in the family, he explained the part about electricity moving through after death blah blah...

And then I had to put Rusty to sleep last year, and I researched the hell out of it in order to know what to expect....

Let it be known, I'm heartless when it comes to humans. Had that been a HUMAN that got hit, I probably would have only stuck around for the morbid factor along with the potential that I would have gotten into legal trouble if I drove off after having seen what happened. NOT because I would care at all for the pain and suffering of the human. Humans are generally evil in my mind, and it takes alot for me to feel sympathy for complete strangers

When it comes to animals, I'm the biggest sap. I have this HUGE need to represent those that can't speak for themselves. I'd like to think that if i got hit by a car, i'd still know I got hit by a car. That dog didn't know...all it knew is one minute it was fine, next minute it was in extreme pain. And it probably felt SO alone. The girl in the SUV was petting the dog's head...I sure hope that consoled him...if just a little...

I'm in the biggest daze right now...I'm surprised I didn't cry at all after I dropped Jenn/Chris/Will off last night at their hotel...it just seemed like a bad movie, but the knot in my stomach is growing, and I'm sure at some point today it'll hit me that I saw an animal DIE, and I heard it's pain, and nothing we did could stop that from happening.

I'm going to go pet Marmalade and Stash now and let them know that they're spoiled brats, but I love them to death.