Seeing is Believing

Like most early weekday mornings, we were on the last leg of our daily three-mile dog walk. It is not out of the ordinary for cars to speed past us, although I don't think hauling ass through residential streets at 6:55 a.m. is warranted, but I digress. A high end black BMW with the head of a very curious Golden Retriever hanging out of the rear window watching Trudy and Louise sniff and meander zips past us. As I do in response to most furry four legged beings, I looked at the dog with affection, and continued walking. What snapped me back to reality was the sound of quickly applied brakes, a thud-thud and a whimper. Sure enough, the dog had either jumped or fallen out of the rear window. The driver opens his car door and stands there fussing with something either on his door (maybe the automatic window locks or his cup holder- perhaps his latte spilled) or near his door. His dog jumped up and ran around the car towards his owner. The driver continues to screw around with his door. I am stunned. So, I yelled: "Is your dog okay?" The guy says: "oh yeah, he's fine." I replied: "He was just hit by your car." He said in an annoyed tone: "He's fine." I couldn't believe it. This guy's dog flips out of his car and he is more concerned with his BMW 's gadgetry than his dog. I would have hot lined the guy if we had a state system in place to respond to reports of animal abuse and neglect. So in frustration, I yelled: "Roll up your car window!" He sped off. I am sure the guy did not intend to harm his dog. But I know that even if the dog did jump up, it could have internal injuries or any number of cracked bones or injuries. I just thought it was amazing that this beautiful, loyal dog got tossed from the Beemer driving at least 30 mph and the driver never even checked the dog before he drove off.