Modern Buddy

I felt awful but the cat ran (really ran, as in darted out) right out into the middle of the road, completely unexpected. It was nighttime and I had my girlfriend on the back so I didn't have as much agility to swerve as normal, not that it would have helped. Hit the cat dead center. It was a bit of a reality check to actually hit something for once, but I have to say the Buddy handled it well.

I was going about 35 or 40 mph so I'm estimating he/she did not survive. At least it was likely an instant death.


Had a lot of strange vibrations going on last night. First the scooter was almost out of a gas, and we barely made it to the station. Then the pump at the gas station had no pressure. The clerk finally got it going and then overfilled the tank and spilled some gas. We also saw a black cat earlier in the drive.


We said a little prayer for the cat. But overall, a very strange night.. a bit like the movie "After Hours" (early scorcese movie).


So I believe what I'm trying to say is, beware of cats when driving at night. And sometimes there's just nothing you can do, poor cat.

We have several around that like to gather in the lot where my scoots reside. I blare the horn a lot coming into the alley, and it's saved their lives and me from some scuffs I'm sure.

If you're like me, you're prolly riddled with guilt, but sometimes cats do stupid things, just like people.

Sorry to hear that. I hit a bird once with my car and was still shaking when I got to work. I swear that small animals seem attracted to the Buddy, but I haven't hit one yet, but I know it will happen one day. Glad you are alright. It would really suck if both you and the cat paid.

The only time I hit an animal (cat) was when I tried to avoid it. Since then I try to swerve towards the animal; it then tends to keep running in its original direction instead of going tharn | bump.

Fortunately you weren't going faster. It might not have turned out so well for you. Hitting animals can turn out very bad indeed for all involved.

Fate of "Garfield" I guess. I hit a dog once comming home from a gig once when I first started playing drums. I felt bad and screamed, "I killed lassie". Honestly it was dark and at that time where I live they had no street lights so it was really dark out and he just ran in front of the car before i saw him in time. Sorry man.

I once hit a groundhog. On my bicycle. I apparently startled him and he jumped out of the long grass on the side of the road, right under my front wheel. I went ass over teakettle, and never found my glasses. He didn't survive long. One of the reasons I never get on a two-wheeler without (at least) a helmet and gloves.

Sad and the truth is some animals are suicide bent it seems. Swerving to miss animals is dangerous too. Please tp noe I am an animal lover and a cat owner, Good you said a prayer... R

Just a couple hours ago I was riding out of my neighborhood and came across a weird sight in the middle of the road. A Robin was chasing a squirrel and the Robin was really mad. The squirrel was running all over the road with the Robin in hot pursuit.

They both saw me coming and I thought my scooter would break them up. But noooooo. The squirrel saw my scooter as his big opportunity to ditch the Robin. So it kept darting in a zig-zag pattern right across my path. No matter what direction I turned or how much I slowed down, the squirrel followed suit. But as I slowed to a crawl, the Robin took advantage of the slowing squirrel and jumped on it's back pecking away like mad. It was a big ball of feathers and fur flailing around.

The squirrel finally high-tailed it off the road and into a bush with the Robin still in hot pursuit.

Pretty weird.

I almost turned around and headed back home. I figured it was some sort of omen.

I have a serious soft spot for cats, I've rescued and rehabbed many, along with some other critters. Hitting a cat would be absolutely traumatizing for me, once nearly a decade ago I hit a freshly dead cat and just the large bump and knowing what it was made me break down crying when I got to my then-boyfriend's house five minutes later.

However... swerving for a cat is indeed the reason I was on a Buddy and not in my Jetta in January. I swerved into grass... something was in the grass... my engine block dropped. Yay. I'll (try) to never swerve again, as hard as that will be for me.

I once had a cat, dead of night, run in to my scooter while I was doing about 45 mph. The poor little creature smacked off of the pipe and went spiraling off behind me; I have no idea what happened to it, but I found some fur stuck into the pipe's heat shield when I arrived at my destination.

I am truly sorry to hear about the cat. I'm not sure if I could actually do it, but I know that the right thing to do in that circumstance is to save your own skin by not trying to avoid the crash. My only other suggestion to you at this point is that you should consider going back to the scene and looking for the cat. I had a cat run over by a car a few years ago and I am forever grateful to the person who hit him because they did what must have been a very, very difficult thing to do: they called me and told me that they had hit him and told me where I could find him. If they had not called, I would have never known what happened to him because he was well outside of the area I would have ever expected him to be. I didn't ask who they were and they didn't tell me. I was fine with that.

I'm a huge animal lover and unfortunately my first instinct would be to swerve. I used to live in a 30mph street that people would speed through at 60+ mph and a lot of big rigs would drive through late at night because it was so wide. I worked a late shift at the time and coming home at 2am, at least once a month, I would find a dead cat or dog or bunny. I usually would stop and pick them up and put them on the sidewalk at least. I didn't want some kid or person finding their pet like that.

Poor kitty.

I've never hit a cat but I'm always worried about hitting one of the millions of coyotes we have out here. Always find them on the side of the roads.

Another thing are the tarantulas! all over the roads at nights, and the worst part is that they start hopping when you get close. so worried one gonna jump on me.

Swerved to miss a raccoon in a Camaro and ended up in a ditch. I think I missed it. No harm to me or my car, but it could have been bad.
Hit a pigeon in an Impala.
Hit a deer in a Jeep doing 75mph. Messed up the Jeep pretty bad.
Hit a dog in a Caprice head on. I got out and looked for him for awhile. That one messed me up because I heard him yelp.
Hit a squirrel in a Suburban.
Hit a seagull with an RV.... but never a cat. Never on 2 wheels either.

Lotrat wrote:Swerved to miss a raccoon in a Camaro and ended up in a ditch. I think I missed it. No harm to me or my car, but it could have been bad.
Hit a pigeon in an Impala.
Hit a deer in a Jeep doing 75mph. Messed up the Jeep pretty bad.
Hit a dog in a Caprice head on. I got out and looked for him for awhile. That one messed me up because I heard him yelp.
Hit a squirrel in a Suburban.

Ya gotta quit letting all these animals into your cars, Lotrat! (Especially pigeons, they're filthy!)

scootavaran wrote:Poor kitty.

I've never hit a cat but I'm always worried about hitting one of the millions of coyotes we have out here. Always find them on the side of the roads.

Another thing are the tarantulas! all over the roads at nights, and the worst part is that they start hopping when you get close. so worried one gonna jump on me.

k;adsvkgcAIlwvDFOYkjasdfdhvWLFVDPiwvefd

OMFG NO.

Tarantulas? Dear gawd. This is why I am fooling myself if I think for one second I could live anywhere other than here. I am okay with snakes, frogs, turtles, maybe even the occaisional gator or croc... but insects and arachnids? NO. Just say no. And they jump? Forget it. I'd turn to stone as a defense mechanism. JEEBUS.

We had a guy in the club hit a deer full-on, on his Vespa... GTS, I believe. He walked away with nary a scratch, and I think his scoot suffered minimal damage (a panel or two), if I remember correctly. I think he's over on MV.

Here, we have 'Possums. And we swear they are satan's envoys. I had 3 friends who were all driving home to one guy's house late at night. The first guy hit a possum with his brand new Beamer, took out one of his headlight assemblies. The 2nd guy hit it. The 3rd car hit it also.

The next day, the 3rd car drove back to the house they were driving home from the night before, and on the way, there was no sign whatsoever of Possum death or destruction anywhere. They're convinced the little bastard got up and walked away somehow

Lotrat wrote:Swerved to miss a raccoon in a Camaro and ended up in a ditch. I think I missed it. No harm to me or my car, but it could have been bad.
Hit a pigeon in an Impala.
Hit a deer in a Jeep doing 75mph. Messed up the Jeep pretty bad.
Hit a dog in a Caprice head on. I got out and looked for him for awhile. That one messed me up because I heard him yelp.
Hit a squirrel in a Suburban.
Hit a seagull with an RV.... but never a cat. Never on 2 wheels either.

I'm picturing all of these incidents with you on a scooter and (for example) the pigeon driving the Impala.

very traumatic experience to hit any kind of animal!! i hit a dog once while driving a volkswagon gti. i felt horrible because there was no way to avoid it....it darted out right in front of me. funny thing about it was that the dog was a bull mastiff....he just got up, looked at me, and then laughed at me as he trotted on across the street. did tons of damage to my car, but at least he was okay.

I hit a cat once in a car, it was awful. It was hit by the car in front of me first and I did not see what it was before I hit it, too, then my mom in the car following me. Took me a bit to get back around to it (heavy traffic) and it haunts me to this day that I didnt react and not hit it after it was down from the first hit. It was night. The poor thing was trying to get up when I realized what it was, but wasnt completely sure til I went back. Of course it was dead but I just had to go back.

NBR I just realized but it is awful to hit an animal.

Fortunately haven't hit anything living with my scoot; about 20 years ago I was driving home and saw a cat dash out into the road into the path of a pick-up directly in front of me. It went under the vehicle right at the rear axle, looped up into the wheel well and ricocheted off the inertia of the tire to the side of the road he was trying to get to. Whole thing happened in the space of four seconds and the cat kept on hauling as if stopping would somehow null whatever forcefield just kept it from being squashed.

Although cats are not my most favorite 'people' I don't think I'd be all too happy if I hit one.....
Neither would I swerve to avoid hitting one, Not because I don't like them, but because I've heard of and seen the out come of swerving to avoid a small animal.
Yesterday for instance, kinda the opposite(ish). A small ground hog was on the road, trying to cross, I don't know, who really known what they think. I straddled it with the company van, the car behind me, I saw ALL this while looking in my rear view, swerved to HIT it! Before I could blink, which is all I did, they had actually gone off the road and up ended in the ditch! REALLY, front end into the drainage ditch and they were on the opposite side of the slope on their roof!!!

On the scoot I s'pose I'd swerve to an extent, donno how much I'd go. I once hit a small squirrel while riding the Met, I almost wrecked! I had a small dog run out into me on the Buddy, I just clipped him with the front tire, we both survived.

I live in a rural-ish type area and there always seems to be kittens running around, hit one late one evening with the Jeep and it made kinda a small squishy bump like sound and feel about the same as if I had run over a pile of manure on the road.....
I did have a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach for a while.

Once, when we were pulling out of a rest area along the Interstate, an RV's door opened, a little terrier dashed out and ran right across our path and under one of our wheels. The pooch was alive, and the owner, though traumatized, saw the whole thing, took responsibility and grabbed up his pooch and headed off to find a vet. My wife was a basket case for hours.

Recently I was riding home and happened to glance in my rearview and saw a cat dragging itself across the street behind me by its front paws. It was gone by the time I circled back (no, I didn't hit it).

I'm a little extra-sensitive to this, as I've worked in the pet-products business for 25 years, owned several cats myself, and every day is bring-your-dog-to-work day here. They're a big part of our lives here.

Here's the tough one that everybody may need to face sooner or later: if you do hit an animal and grievously wound it (rather than outright kill it), you have to make some spot decisions: keep driving, go back, leave it where you found it, take it to a vet (assuming some big financial responsibility, esp. after-hours), or euthanize it (maybe not humanely) where it lies.

The self-dragging cat incident notwithstanding, I haven't had to make the Hard Choices so far. It bears thinking about how each of us might handle such a situation.

PeteH wrote:I'm a little extra-sensitive to this, as I've worked in the pet-products business for 25 years, owned several cats myself, and every day is bring-your-dog-to-work day here.

I'm soooo jealous!

I have been lucky. I have been able to avoid the few squirrels who have darted out in the road while on the scooter. I know I have hit a few animals with my car- especially when I worked the late shift on the way home. I did my best to avoid most of them. I have seen the damage a deer can do to a car. Please remember to be careful removing animals from the roadway. I had a friend who got hit by a car while helping move a dog out of the road. He was in the hospital for a long time and had problems for years from his closed head injury. You can't do much for wild animals but the owners of the dogs or cats are responsible if their pets run into the road- not the unlucky soul who hits them.

I just hit a cat while on the Stella about a week ago. I felt and still feel really bad about it. I still find myself checking the sides of the road when I drive/ride through that area.
I was doing about 50mph, it was in the middle of the opposite lane heading away from me. I let off of the throttle a bit and kept an eye on it but at the last second it darted back in my direction and there was nothing I could do to avoid it. The impact left me weaving and wobbling for a good 20 feet. It was definitely scary. I pulled into a nearby gas station, shaking and breathing heavy, to allow myself a moment to regroup.
As bad as I felt/feel about hitting that cat, I was pretty impressed w/myself for keeping control of the scoot. It could have been a much worse incident.
My commute takes me through the grounds of a state penitentary which seems to be a breeding ground for groundhogs. It is one of my worst fears that one of those 'huge' suckers will run out in front of me on the scoot.

TVB wrote:

Lotrat wrote:Swerved to miss a raccoon in a Camaro and ended up in a ditch. I think I missed it. No harm to me or my car, but it could have been bad.
Hit a pigeon in an Impala.
Hit a deer in a Jeep doing 75mph. Messed up the Jeep pretty bad.
Hit a dog in a Caprice head on. I got out and looked for him for awhile. That one messed me up because I heard him yelp.
Hit a squirrel in a Suburban.
Hit a seagull with an RV.... but never a cat. Never on 2 wheels either.

I'm picturing all of these incidents with you on a scooter and (for example) the pigeon driving the Impala.

And I'm seeing all the animals in the passenger seat, Lotrat driving, and the animal doing goofy, distracting animal things to the point Lotrat can't stand it anymore and pops 'em upside the head.

Demo_Nic wrote:

PeteH wrote:I'm a little extra-sensitive to this, as I've worked in the pet-products business for 25 years, owned several cats myself, and every day is bring-your-dog-to-work day here.

I'm soooo jealous!

Me too!

I've often thought about making the suggestion at my office to have a pet day but everybody seems to be into their two legged kids. Ugh...

A plea to pet owners, and especially cat owners: Please, make them indoors-only kittehs. I understand in other-than-urban areas, this can seem cruel or impractical, but on average, indoor-only cats live longer, healthier lives than cats that are allowed outside with no supervision (in populated areas especially, this is true; most metropolitan areas are so overrun with strays and ferals that disease vectors rise to ridiculous levels, even disregarding car traffic and other factors).

A healthy cat will live 15-20 years, but many never get close to this because they are allowed to roam more freely than they are able to survive.
.

+1

Lotrat wrote:Swerved to miss a raccoon in a Camaro and ended up in a ditch. I think I missed it. No harm to me or my car, but it could have been bad.
Hit a pigeon in an Impala.
Hit a deer in a Jeep doing 75mph. Messed up the Jeep pretty bad.
Hit a dog in a Caprice head on. I got out and looked for him for awhile. That one messed me up because I heard him yelp.
Hit a squirrel in a Suburban.
Hit a seagull with an RV.... but never a cat. Never on 2 wheels either.

Syd wrote:Ya gotta quit letting all these animals into your cars, Lotrat! (Especially pigeons, they're filthy!)

TVB wrote:I'm picturing all of these incidents with you on a scooter and (for example) the pigeon driving the Impala.

Syd wrote:And I'm seeing all the animals in the passenger seat, Lotrat driving, and the animal doing goofy, distracting animal things to the point Lotrat can't stand it anymore and pops 'em upside the head.

You guys wouldn't believe how many I hit today.... JK
My list is from 20 some years of driving. It's not something you forget. Well at least I didn't. I like your ideas though. Kinda like three stooges with animals.

jprestonian wrote:A plea to pet owners, and especially cat owners: Please, make them indoors-only kittehs. I understand in other-than-urban areas, this can seem cruel or impractical, but on average, indoor-only cats live longer, healthier lives than cats that are allowed outside with no supervision (in populated areas especially, this is true; most metropolitan areas are so overrun with strays and ferals that disease vectors rise to ridiculous levels, even disregarding car traffic and other factors).

A healthy cat will live 15-20 years, but many never get close to this because they are allowed to roam more freely than they are able to survive.
.

Quoted for truth.

More importantly, if you do let your pets out, spay/neuter. And seriously consider microchipping.

My ex husband and I ran a trap-release program; when he started working at a local community college as security and learned there was a feral cat colony living in/around the campus, his Sargeant let him work on it on duty as well as off, because the local animal control had given up (too quickly, I might add- we caught, sterilized, rabies-vaccinated and re-released 5 adults and rehabbed and adopted out 3 litters of kittens with just 2 traps in a few months time). The root cause of this is people not spaying and neutering- there's no excuse, plenty of clinics do low-cost neuters and vaccinations, and I think there's even some out there that occaisionally do free clinics for the low-income.

Someone should start a pet thread. or is there already one? hmmmm...

I hit a deer last night. This was three days after I dropped my new BV350 on my leg in my driveway and sprained my knee and ankle. It has been one of those weeks!

I was going down Electric Ave in Bellingham on my Buddy after picking up dinner at Panda Express. It was dusk, raining lightly, and traffic was pretty heavy. I was going about 30 mph.

A car was in the oncoming lane with its highbeams on blinding me so I was already off the gas. I caught a flash of movement on the shoulder of the road and the next thing I know there is a deer standing in the middle of the road panicking as it decided whether to run or stay. I had oncoming traffic still on the left. I didn't think I could recover in time if I tried to break right and the right side lacked what I would call a good landing zone (plus it looked like the deer was going to bolt that way). I had nowhere to go so I got on the brake. I managed to dump about half my speed before I center punched the deer in the gut. It ended up riding my handle bars for what seemed like forever but was probably only a few yards. The deer was perfectly balenced on the bike and I might have been able to keep it upright, but I think something about my new set of circumstances in life made me dynamite the brakes. I felt the front tire slide out to the right side. I rode it to the ground for reasons I can't recall, and ended up with my right foot once again trapped under the damn bike.

Somehow I wound up straddling the front forks next to the deer (but thankfully not the handlebars!) with my hands out in a push up position on the ground as we skidded to a stop. We both needed some comforting at that point so the deer and I spent a second spooning before parting company.

With my foot under the Buddy and my body over the front forks I couldn't figure out how to get free of it. I heard someone come running up behind me yelling "oh my God, are you ok? That f#!%ing deer came out of nowhere!"

She helped me up and I was instantly surrounded by good samaritans. Somebody grabbed my Buddy and pushed it onto the sidewalk. No light headedness or signs of shock this time around, but I took a seat on the sidewalk to play it safe. Amongst the witnesses was a EMT, a first responder, and the lady who helped me up was a doctor. She checked me out on the side of the road, and again at her house for good measure. Her husband pushed my Buddy to their garage, and she gave me a ride back to my place.

Several of the witnesses all said that as soon as the deer came out of the brush along the side of the road they knew there was nothing I could do to avoid it. It is actually a relief to know that even if the car had not had its high beams on I was still hosed!

I am little worse for wear. The fall and twisting aggrevated my prior knee injury, but did not appear to do any more damage. A couple of hours after the incident and I am almost back to where I was before the second accident. I have got some road rash on my wrist where the gloves did not give me any coverage and the jacket sleeve was pushed up.

Pretty much every plastic part on the front of the Buddy except for the fender and windshield was destroyed. I think I kneed the interior. She still rolls just fine, the lights all work, the engine starts without problems, and the structural parts under the plastic look ok. I dropped it off at the local shop today so they could make sure it is still structurally sound before I start to repair it.

The deer was last seen looking annoyed while grazing nearby.

My Panda Express dinner survived! Those styrafoam containers they use are bomber. My meal was not even badly mixed up and it was still warm!

If anyone is looking for how to remove the chrome plastic ring that fits around the speedometer without damaging it, this is one way to go about it. I would use it as a last resort.

Kyle

Let me say that again:

Wiggins wrote:Amongst the witnesses was a EMT, a first responder, and the lady who helped me up was a doctor.

That was a stroke of good luck. And except for the fact of y'know hitting a deer, it sounds like you had quite a bit of that. Combined with the right gear and some smart high-speed decisions, I'd say you came out of this about as well as you could hope for: with body, soul, sense of humor, and Chinese take-out all still held together. It sucks about the injuries and damage, but it's not a lot of scooterists who get to walk away from a deer collision.

Wow Wiggins! That is one crazy story!

I'm just damn glad you weren't going any faster or it might not have turned out so well. Count your blessings!

I rarely ride at night on my scooter for 2 reasons - deer and drunk drivers where I live. There's a lot of both. I've hit deer in my cage and I've been hit by drunk drivers in my cage (I always seem to get rammed from behind when I'm stopped at lights).

I also always try to buy gloves with gaunlets for the road rash reason you explained.

Wow! Glad you (and the deer!) came out alive and well. That's quite a story.

This is just golden!

Wiggins wrote:We both needed some comforting at that point so the deer and I spent a second spooning before parting company.

pdxrita wrote:Wow! Glad you (and the deer!) came out alive and well. That's quite a story.

This is just golden!

Wiggins wrote:We both needed some comforting at that point so the deer and I spent a second spooning before parting company.

+1

Mutt the Hoople wrote:

pdxrita wrote:Wow! Glad you (and the deer!) came out alive and well. That's quite a story.

This is just golden!

Wiggins wrote:We both needed some comforting at that point so the deer and I spent a second spooning before parting company.

+1

Glad you and the deer were ok.

well this happen in sudden and you said your speed is less and you are not drive fast. This type of accident are in mind always when we drive and see any animal on the road. I fell in this situation many times but small accident but always in my mind with fear that due to this i can also suffer major accident
orange county veterinary

It is deer mating season according to my neighbour the Great Bamby Hunter, so be careful out there. The deer are everywhere (except where my neighbout hunts).

Stormswift wrote:It is deer mating season according to my neighbour the Great Bamby Hunter, so be careful out there. The deer are everywhere (except where my neighbout hunts).

+1 I've probably posted this somewhere on MB before, but it still amazes me. Watch the rider's helmet when the video is repeated on slo mo.

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/A6VS6qsLJeY" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Rob

Stormswift wrote:It is deer mating season according to my neighbour the Great Bamby Hunter, so be careful out there. The deer are everywhere (except where my neighbout hunts).

you mean. watch out for all the fukin deer?

VinylDoctor wrote:

Stormswift wrote:It is deer mating season according to my neighbour the Great Bamby Hunter, so be careful out there. The deer are everywhere (except where my neighbout hunts).

you mean. watch out for all the fukin deer?

pdxrita wrote:I am truly sorry to hear about the cat. I'm not sure if I could actually do it, but I know that the right thing to do in that circumstance is to save your own skin by not trying to avoid the crash. My only other suggestion to you at this point is that you should consider going back to the scene and looking for the cat. I had a cat run over by a car a few years ago and I am forever grateful to the person who hit him because they did what must have been a very, very difficult thing to do: they called me and told me that they had hit him and told me where I could find him. If they had not called, I would have never known what happened to him because he was well outside of the area I would have ever expected him to be. I didn't ask who they were and they didn't tell me. I was fine with that.

this x1000. If this ever happened to my pet I would be incredibly appreciative of knowing what happened and not wondering if he'll ever come home or turn up at a shelter.