death on the roadways

Driving along country roads one becomes accustomed to the sight of roadkill. The most common victims are cats, raccoons, skunks, birds and less often, deer. This time of year, I usually to see a lot of snakes. I have no idea where the snakes are going. They don't seem to be basking on the sun-warmed pavement, as I had thought they might. Instead, they seem to be on the move, on the way to somewhere in a hurry.

In my own hurry here and there, it is still a gut-wrenching feeling to hit and injure or kill any living being. This snake had been struck just by the entry to my laneway. He/she was about three times as big as the little gartersnake I hit the other day on my way to the city to my paying job.

I think the most horrifying sight I have seen was a raccoon which stumbled out of the darkness into my headlights one night. It had obviously been hit, it's eyes glassy in pain, disorientated and staggering about in the roadway. That's a bad memory I'd rather not have. I didn't know what to do at the time. In hindsight I regret that I didn't stop to put it out of it's misery somehow.