The day always starts early as I try to get the puppies awake and eating breakfast long before we hit the road. Of course, I woke the whole room of puppies up so the others got to eat earlier than normal too.
A beautiful morning for a drive.
The morning went as usual and I was on the road with the puppies and my co-pilot (Cajsa). I even had time to stop at the drive-through coffee shop for some tea and a muffin before continuing on to Spokane.
A cool picture of Cajsa in the morning light.
Unfortunately about twenty minutes out of town, I got my surprise and it wasn’t a good one. Just as I was driving past an area with a guardrail (there’s a ravine over the edge) a deer jumped over the rail right in front of my truck! There was no way I could see her coming with the drop-off and no time to react (which was probably a good thing). Overreacting (which I’m sure I would’ve done) can create a more intense wreck. I was going the speed limit (60 mph) hit that poor deer almost straight on. It didn’t have a chance 🙁
After the initial shock, I slowed and pulled over. There wasn’t much of shoulder, so I just got out for a minute to get an preliminary assessment of the damage. Then I decided to slowly drive just a bit further up the hill to a gas station where I could pull over for a better look.
The main damage was the grill and bumper. And I didn’t even think about it until later when hubby mentioned that the airbags didn’t deploy. So it must’ve hit an area that didn’t activate them. The grill has four quadrants and the right lower was completely missing. The bumper was smashed (stupid plastic parts on trucks and cars these days!). Thankfully, there was no radiator damage (It sits back further in the large engine compartment) and nothing was leaking. (The deer did not go under the truck but was deflected off and across the highway). My gauges (oil pressure, engine temp, etc) were all reading normal. The headlight (nearest the damage) was fine, the hood was not dented, the driver’s side quarter panel had one minute scratch (that hubby found later) but wasn’t dented. That was it. It was ugly, but still drivable (don’t worry, I talked to my “mechanic” aka hubby). So even though it was a traumatic, awful thing to happen (poor Bambi 🙁 )there were so many things to be thankful for. And grateful I was!
I was able to continue on down the road to Spokane (albeit a bit nosier with the broken plastic rattling in the wind). And made it to my puppy delivery only about twenty minutes later than my usual arrival time. (I try to arrive 30 minutes before meeting time).
The rest of the day went smoothly. The puppies got a quick potty break before I starting meeting the families. Hubby rigged up a board across the back end so they wouldn’t tumble out and I could see them. They kept trying to hop over it though. So I just closed the the big heavy drop down door aka tail gate (lol) and discovered if I stand up tall and straight and can see over the tail gate to watch the puppy antics.
I had a good meeting with the three families and sent them on their way with their bundles of fluff.
Merry is now Daphne
Bright is now Pepper
And Jolly is now Jaxon Tobias aka Jax
Then we let them have another potty break before everyone headed their different directions. Cajsa and I then headed towards home with a few shopping stops along the way.
And thanks to hubby and the cool camera, I was able to keep an eye on expectant Sky resting at home.