Last night out for my usual late drive, and an opossum froze (guess he was starring at the headlights) in the middle of the road right in front! I curved around him like he was an AutoX cone! My own reflexes surprised me....and the little bugger skittered away! Dumb opossums, no wonder I see so many as roadkill around here....that was the first live one I'd seen! Armadillo roadkill very common around here too.

 

Had a couple of doe's prance in front of me in the last two weeks. I stopped real fast, in case there was more than 1, but if I was in any other car, would've stopped too... The 2nd nite I saw the doe, she was the trailer (2 doe's), no bucks...

 

Did you ever notice how squirrels tend stop and double back (even if they've almost crossed the road) when they realize a car is bearing down them? I saw this a few years ago on a residential street when the car ahead of me thought he would miss the squirrel because it would've crossed the road by the time his car got there. The squirrel (which is really a rat with a good p.r. agent) would have been ok if he hadn't backtracked...

I am mentioning this as a prelude to my story. Early this summer I was taking a highway access road, which has a nice right hand curve, when I see a squirrel up ahead ready to jump onto the road. He waits till I am close and starts to dash accross the road from the right By now I am in the curve and not willing to hit the brakes. I have a feeling the squirrel will do something stupid, so I tighten my turn radius. If the squirrel had continued on its course, it would have put him under my left front tire. Sure enough it slams on the brakes, turns on a dime and tries to return to its departure point. I pass squarely over it and glance back in my rear view mirror to see it scampering away. It would've been an unpleasant way to start my day.