Oh Deer!

Last night we were driving home from an overnight trip up to Estes Park. We had gone up there for a LLL Leader retreat at the YMCA camp. It was a fun trip.

We left Lilly at my MIL's house but she was now happily riding in the back of the car. Dh was driving my car. Less than a block from our house a deer jumped out in front of the car and we hit him pretty square on. DH had tried his best to avoid the deer, but the darned thing jumped in front of us. The deer was thown about 6 feet into the other lane and it rolled at least once (maybe more). It then got up and ran off into the park. There's a cow pasture on one side of the road and a park on the other side so it's common for the deer to run through there. We've just been lucky that this was our first time hitting one.

When we got home we looked at the car. Dh said that it was running funny. The only apparent damage was the head light was pushed in, the side light was cracked and had some deer fur in it and there were two small dents in the hood.

I called up the police non-emergency line when we got home to report the accident. The officer who took the call said that there was nothing to report unless someone (human) was hurt or the damage to the car was over $1000. So that was it. DH & I were both concerned for the injured deer, but in the city limits they don't hunt it down to put it out of it's misery.

So then this morning we got a better look at the car. My bumper is smushed in and there's quite a dent in the driver's side front pannel where the bumper bent it. So maybe it will be over $1000, but we aren't going to report it because the car is so old (1994) that we probably won't get much of it repaired...just make it drivable again.

I asked DH if I might get a new car out of this and he says that now even more than before I have to drive it into the ground. Boo hoo. I've been longing for THIS! Oh well.

So I'll let you know how much the damage to my car is. All that is likely to get repaired is the headlight & sidelight.

I forgot to mention that the speedlimit is only 35mph through that part of town. I typically travel at 40, but DH follows the rules. So with the breaking we weren't going more than 30...right.

Yeah, the deer is probably just fine. Meanwhile I don't like driving a smashed up car! It makes me feel trashy.