Posts Tagged ‘Good Samaritan’
Good Samaritan
After driving up and down 650th Street, I turned onto a gravel field road to search along the edge of the woods just north of our property. Asher had disappeared on me again. We have tracking tags, but they are currently on Cyndie’s and Elysa’s luggage in Norway.
Thankfully, Cyndie had the forethought to write my phone number on the blaze orange neck bandana that we make him wear to help us see him. While searching for a missing dog, it made sense to answer the call from an unknown number.
The very cheery voice said that she had stopped for a dog in the road, and he jumped right into her car. That’s our Asher. When it comes to cars, Asher has no sense of the concept of stranger danger. He sees every vehicle as his favorite place to be.
She told me that he was on County Road N. That was a new one, in terms of distance away from home, and a real red flag. That road has a 55 mph speed limit, which makes it a very unsafe place for him to be.
I told her I would meet her at the intersection with 650th. Couldn’t thank her enough. She said he is a very friendly dog.
Well, sure. She let him get into her car. Instant BFF.
I immediately revoked his privilege of roaming freely. When I become engaged in an activity, he gets confined to a leash. If we go for a walk off-leash, he has to stay close to me at all times.
To all the good Samaritans who stop and rescue stray dogs wandering on roads, I say thank you. It would have been so easy for her to just keep going, and I had no clue he might choose to go that far. That woman created a good outcome with her care and concern.
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Spin Happens
Ya know that theory I was jesting about yesterday? Well, it works from both directions. If you are under-prepared, that is when you will face situations that challenge your preparedness. Case in point: if you plan to use your pickup truck for commuting on the roadways during inclement weather, make sure you put some weight in the back to balance the vehicle and add traction to the rear wheels. If you don’t, the truck just might spin out on an icy patch of road and slide off the pavement, where the wheels can catch on the gravel of the shoulder and cause the truck to roll over.
Cyndie captured this on-the-scene cell phone image of the dramatic outcome.
Cyndie didn’t intentionally test that theory, but by making an unplanned decision to drive the Wintervale Ranch truck to work yesterday (since her car was in for service and she didn’t want to risk driving a rental car on the icy roads), she subjected herself to an incredible dose of adrenaline and tested her seat belt when the truck spun and slid across the oncoming lane, and off the pavement. As the truck reached the shoulder, sliding sideways, the wheels stopped and the momentum of the vehicle kept on going. Up and over it rolled, passenger door down, then over onto the roof, breaking the door window and smashing the windshield as the roof of the cab buckled.
Our illustrious hero dodged suffering any blows from impact, lucky that the truck missed a sign post as it moseyed past, and luckier still that there was no vehicle approaching from the north as she lost control.
Of course, I assumed she was probably going too fast for the conditions, until she described where the accident occurred. If that is as far as she had gotten in the time since she left the house, she must have been driving very slow. Plus, that spot is just after an intersection with a stoplight, and it is an uphill slope in the direction she was driving.
Cyndie is quick to state that the Good Samaritans who were driving immediately behind her witnessed the whole event and corroborated her claim to responding police officers that she wasn’t going fast at the time.
Spin happens.
Be careful out there. And, always wear a seat belt!
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Relative Something 