With Autumn in full swing and heading towards winter, daylight wanes early. In Victoria, where I live it’s dark lately by 5 pm, and if it happens to be raining (not an uncommon occurrence this time of year), night time visibility can get pretty bad. A few nights ago, the combination of the rain and the darkness almost proved fatal for my neighbor’s dog, Duke.
My neighbor’s had just returned home from grocery shopping and with arms full with bags of groceries, when Mike opened the door to their house, Duke bolted past them out into the street. There was a cat on the opposite side of the street and of course when it comes to cats and dogs, dogs will be dogs and the chase was on. Fortunately for the cat, it didn’t have to dip into its “9 lives” bank account this time, because in darting across the street Duke managed to get himself clipped by a slow moving car, bringing to an end his crazily focused “must get cat” pursuit. Miraculously Duke came out of it with no broken bones or other serious injuries; maybe he borrowed one of the cat’s 9 lives? It really could have, and probably should have been much worse!
What might have prevented this near tragedy? I guess if Mike had of been more careful opening the door Duke wouldn’t have been able to sneak past them, but stuff happens. There are a number of safety products on the market that might have helped prevent Duke’s accident that night. A
reflective or lighted safety collar, jacket, or a pet safety light
would have made Duke more visible and in all likelihood the driver of the car would have seen Duke and had time to react and avoid hitting him.
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