Fur/hair...In it's alive form.

I live on a country road, so I see a lot of wildlife, as most of us do. All, good for flies of course. Deer, chipmunks, squirrels, dogs, cats, etc.

Today, driving home from the pond a chipmonk ran across in front of me. Now me, if something runs out and dies, they were stupid. My wife, she'll feel really bad and cry etc. So anyways, back to the story. The chipmonk, runs across the road, I miss hitting it. And I'm not sure how, but I did. My wife, in a high pitch tone is saying "Run little chipmunk, run".

So it makes it. And my wife slaps me and screams at me "You were AIMING for him!!!!". So I laughed.

Now I'm not saying I wasn't aiming for him, but I'm not saying I was either. I just wasn't swerving for the little bugger. Fresh layed gravel etc. Swerving would have been a bad idea.

So, it got me wondering if any of you actually aim for the little guys running across the road.

I'm going to pick up some Borax incase I do run one over. Afterall, no reason they should goto waste and rot, and be ran over 100 million times.

I do find though, I nearly run over squirrels a lot now that I fish almost every day. And travel almost 90% gravel roads. Alot of which are treed on both sides. Just hope I don't hit something bigger with my cavalier haha.

Cheers,
Shane

Tip that actually works well. ( Unless you need the fur )
You know how the squirrels or chipmunks will run back and forth unable to make up their mind till you run over them. Even dogs and cats sometimes seem unable to make up their minds. HIT THE HORN! 99% of the time if you hit the horn the animal will run straight off the roadto safety. The sound makes up their mind instantly. If there is a dog or a cat on the side of the road a beep will often cause them to turn and look at the car and thus avoid it. Works for deer too.

True Brother In law story. My bro in law put deer whistles on his truck. He regularly drove from Vancouver to Calgary on a commercial run. He dropped by the house to say hi one day. I noticed the whistles had been taken off leaving marks where they had been. I asked him how come you took them off. Didn't work was the reply. I said did you hit a deer. Nope. Then they must have worked I said. He looked startled, then got quiet for a bit. Then He said maybe I should put them back. I swear that a true story. :D

Uh,, let me get this straight. This guy's sister chose you for a husband? :)
(sometimes this just gets too easy!) lol

I even swerve to miss fuzzy caterpillars that are crossing the road, which makes my wife roll her eyes.

I only aim my car at politicians unable to make up their minds while crossing the road and NO I won't beep the horn!

BTW Otto:

You MAY want to check your local laws regarding the harvest of road kill. There is a myriad of laws covering that situation and it isn't worth the hassle just for some free chipmunks or fuzzy caterpillars.

I've found it's extremely difficult to skin those fuzzy caterpillars once you've hit them.
[sometimes it just gets too easy!]

I can honestly say that I have only intentionally hit one animal and that was a cat that the car in front of me had hit. The poor thing was spinning in circles with his hind legs going about 100 miles per hour and his head and shoulders rotating on one spot. I had to put it out of it's misery.

I will always avoid a critter unless it means I will go off the road or hit another car. There are far too many volunteer road kills out there for me to add to the carnage.

Also, I'm pretty sure it would be bad carma to intentionally hit a critter for fly tying material. I'm sure the fish gods would make sure that you introduce bugs to your other materials and you wouldn't catch any fish on the flies you tied with the materials harvested from the "murdered" critter anyway. Just a thought...

Jim Smith

Haha, you guys crack me up.

Yeah, I need to check out the roadkill harvest laws.

But Jim makes a good point. If you believe in Karma of course. Which I do. Guess I'm not aiming for the critters haha:)

Shane

P.S. Deer whistles certainly do work:)

Ok, I can't really imagine anyone trying to hit an animal to collect tying material..that would be sick...
Two other things...
Remember far more people are hurt or killed trying to swerve and miss an animal and then tunning off a road or into the path of another car. I have taught a number of kids to drive and I tell them... If an animal runs into their path... hit the brakes & hit your horn..then hit the animal if you have to...do not swerve.
Also, check into any research...Deer whistles are worthless.

Bill from PA

Bill,

You're correct. Swerving is just too dangerous. My wife, will swerve and kill everyone in the car before she hits a little chipmunk. Well, maybe she won't but she's still crazy about saving the little critters. I refuse to swerve, even for dogs, or deer. I do apply the brakes and use the horn though.

As for the deer whistles. I think they work. I'll do a search on them to find out. But a buddy of mine was always slowing down for deer around here or hitting his brakes hard to avoid them. He put on the whistles and noticed he wasn't slowly down for deer, ever. Going off his research is where I made my conclusion they worked.

Take care guys,
Shane