I was out with our dog when I noticed another dog on the other side of the road. It was off its leash and appeared to have wandered into the road. The owners seemed to be a Chinese family: mother, father, and child in stroller. Unusual, I mused, you don’t see that many people of Chinese extraction with dogs.
Anyway, I continued, thinking for a moment that maybe a dog with a tendency to wander into the road should not be off its lead in a city. Oh well, it’s their dog, hopefully they know what they are doing, I hoped.
About two seconds later, the little white fluffy dog must have seen our canine, because it started to charge across the road. I saw it coming, and stopped. Alas, at the very same time a RAV 4 was passing and, yes, you can guess what happened next. The little white dog was hit by the car.
It did not look to be in a good way, poor little thing.
Stop reading, start speaking
Stop translating in your head and start speaking Italian for real with the only audio course that prompt you to speak.
The owner of the car which hit the dog stopped and came to see if there was anything he could do. The Chinese mother burst into tears. The injured dog was taken to a nearby vets, but I really don’t know if it survived. I doubt it.
All very sad, and, at the same time avoidable. If only the little dog had been kept on its leash.
Dogs are animals, and they can be unpredictable (ours is), as the unfortunate couple found out to their cost. And, many Italian drivers are not great at anticipating potential problems, so if your dog escapes and a car is coming. Well, you know how it will end.
In this situation, however, no blame could be apportioned to the driver of the car involved. The dog was small, came from between parked cars, on a narrow road, and so seeing the animal and reacting in time would have been impossible. Even if the driver had reacted, he would have had nowhere to go, and would have caused an even worse accident if he had tried.
Please, please, keep your dog on a lead in towns – not just in Italy, everywhere.
