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Sorry about your luck Greedo. I have been there.
I hit a black dog just like this around Christmas about five years ago. I was doing 60 mph on a rural 2-lane US Hwy and bam. Just like you Greedo, I had about enough time to see the white stripe of fur down his chest when he turned toward the car. I guess I hit him about 45 mph after slamming on the brakes. I stopped and looked around, but I didn't see the dog. Unfortunately he did survive. Although I didn't realized that until I began to accelerate again and he started yelping. The dog was trapped under my 1992 Altima by the back axle. So what now?
No way in hell, I'm reaching under my car to free a wounded animal. I have a wife freaking out in my car, a dog trapped under the car, and since it was five years ago my cell doesn't even get roaming service in rural Kansas. I flag down the next passerby to use his cell, meanwhile my wife is walking away from the car in the pitch black to avoid hearing the yelping dog. I am trying to keep my wife in eyesight range and still stay around the car so the sheriff/animal control can find me. Oh yeah, it is also late December and about 10 degrees outside. I don't have a good winter coat, b/c I'm not planning on being outside anyway. My wife gets the leather jacket and I freeze my arse off in a heavy sweatshirt. The only other item I have that could kill the dog is a MagLite. I don't think I'm going to crawl under my car with a MagLite.
Turns out after 20 minutes the fire truck shows up to argue with the arriving cop about who is gonna get this dog unstuck from the car. This is when they inform me it is a pit bull, and neither is real keen on unhooking this dog. They decide the fire dept. will inflate an airbag to lift the car and the firemen will use poles to hold the dog down while the policeman unhooks the dog's leg. To make a long story short, cop shoots wounded dog, and I go about my business.
I don't know what I would have done in your situation, but I am not sure stopping is the right answer unless you have one trapped to your axel. I don't know what I would have done if the cops would have said, "Not my problem". I'm pretty sure it would have involved a high rate of speed and earmuffs though.
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