Shout out to the guy who was alert and braked his car to avoid running over a puppy that was darting across the road. It happened right in front of our building last Sunday. I thought the puppy was a goner as I witnessed the moment when the puppy and the car was about to collide. I heard a big thud which I thought was the moment of impact followed by agonising whimpers.

I was bracing myself for the gruesome scene of the aftermath. The sight of a roadkill is never pretty. Heads got smashed and flattened, eyeballs popping out, stuff of nightmares. Anybody not affected by the sight must be a natural psychopath. Despite the gruesome scene, I just have to suck it up, get the carcass off the road before other cars grind it to splinters, creating a far more unbearable sight.  

I activated my one-man roadkill cleanup crew, prepared my gloves, a garbage bag, and a shovel, ready to extract and bury the poor roadkill. I had to do it as efficient and as quick as possible to avoid catching the attention of other tenants (some of which are judgmental a-holes). When I got to the scene, I didn’t see any dead puppy. Then from the corner of my eye I saw it under a parked car, wagging its tail, looking a bit shaken but very much alive. I just stood there for a while, dumbfounded, processing what just happened, or not happen rather. Then a sense of relief. Phew! 

We like to think that residential roads are no place for speeding cars. But there are idiots who god knows whatever for drive like maniacs along these roads. On top of these speeding idiots, there are people whose focus is just 10% on the road and 90% on their phones. These two types of road scums would mow anything on the road they are driving through – monitor lizards, monkeys, cats, dogs, squirrels, small humans, big humans, anything. If only they come to their senses, slow down and keep their eyes on the road, many of the roadkills could have been avoided. But I know that is just wishful thinking. They won’t change without any forced inducement. Their kryptonite are speed bumps. Let the speed bumps make their cars fly to oblivion.