I guess my car, almost three-years-old-to-me, is officially broken in now.
Friday night I took some cat food to a customer, enjoyed an ice cream at his shop, and went to Trader Joe’s. I was driving home, down a busy 4-lane street, when suddenly this guy yabbering away on a cell phone, who was parked on the side of the street, pulls his dog out of the car into the street. It’s a large dog – I’m no “dog expert”, but it looks like maybe a bull mastiff mix or something along those lines. The dog is totally out of control. He’s on a leash, but a long one, and guy has no control whatsoever over the dog – a situation that isn’t helped by the fact he’s still blathering away on his cell phone. So basically the man pulls the dog right out into the street, in front of my car.
I SLAM on my brakes. OMG, I don’t think I’ve ever been so scared driving in my life, and I’ve had some fairly horrific accidents. The dog disappears in front of my car – the guy is STILL yabbering away on his cell phone while simultaneously yanking away at the leash… I didn’t think I hit the dog – but then the driver behind me plows into my car and I’m thinking OMG, OMG, the DOG!!!!
The idiot guy pulls his dog over – the dog seems okay, thank God.
So, I pull ahead and over to the side, and the woman who hit me did the same. I’m totally shook up and she is too… I get out and ask if she’s okay. She does the same, then says “let me check on my kids” and checks on her two little girls in the car. They’re okay. (I didn’t see them well, but they seemed shooken up, but okay.) The woman comes back, and we look over and the JERK WHO CAUSED THE ACCIDENT IS CROSSING THE STREET, TAKING HIS DOG INTO THE PARK FOR A FRICKING WALK!
Woman starts yelling at him: “Hey! Hey!”, but he just keeps going. She yells at him “BE CAREFUL!” He ignores her.
I was still shaken up as we looked over our cars, etc. I didn’t think to get the JERK’S license plate or anything. We convinced ourselves everything was okay (my bumper only slightly nicked and her SUV’s front bumper and license plate only banged up a bit) and I drove home a mess.
Once I was done being scared I was just ANGRY AS HECK.
Poor dog with such an ignorant JERK owner.
The whole situation could have been SO easily avoided if he’d just pulled his dog out on the sidewalk side – taken a few extra seconds to walk around the car…. or at least held on to the dog’s collar as he pulled him out of the car!
Some people are MUCH too stupid to be allowed to have pets… or cars… or cell phones.
