Hmph.

So, I've lived in the Lake Gaston area almost my whole life. I've been driving the back roads and by-ways for the last ten years. I've seen my fair share of woodland critters cross the road, and I've seen my fair share of woodland critters fail to cross the road. If you go back 7-10 years, it seems like I would hit a possum every few months, I hit a few squirrels now and then, several birds, heck, I even hit a rooster once! (Ask me about that in person some time, he was playing "chicken" to impress a hen. Really!) Though I tried rather hard, I don't think I ever got a cat. And yes, cats are the only animal I ever tried to run down. I hit a deer once, but, thankfully, I saw it far enough in advance that I was only doing about 10-15 mph when I clipped its back legs. It and my car were fine. I even hit a turtle once. But I swear, it wasn't my fault. I was looking in the ditch because I thought I saw a dead person, (It turns out that it was a scarecrow) and then I heard a sickening crunch under my tires, when I looked in the mirror I saw the remnants of a turtle. (I don't know if it was dead before I hit it, I could be innocent.) Another time, I was crossing a bridge in my Firebird when a Canada Goose took off from the water and flew along beside the bridge for a while. It then swerved in front of me, and was aerodynamically pushed higher and avoided me by mere inches. When I looked out the glass in my T-tops, I know it couldn't have been more than 6-8 inches away from the glass.
All that to say, other than a Jeep in early March, I haven't hit much wildlife with my car in the past 6 years. And, oddly enough, about March I started seeing new, or different, wildlife around the lake. I don't know if they sensed my experience on the road and were rewarding me with their appearances, or what. But I'll give you a quick run-down of what I've seen over the past few months.
I've seen 4 turkeys in the road, 2 of them walked off, 2 flew off. I was nearly hit 2 or 3 times by wildly banking buzzards in flight (That would not be pretty). I ran a wrinkly bloodhound off the road (It was in the other lane, but when it saw me, it jumped like I scared it, and shook all its extra skin around. I thought it looked pretty funny.). I've seen countless deer, squirrels and opossum. A gray fox darted out of a ditch-bank and across my path. Several dozen turtles have been spotted (and skillfully avoided, I add with pride). I even had a peacock cross the road in front of me. Yes, I'm sure it was a peacock, and it's been spotted by others.
I couldn't help but get the feeling that this was some sort of send-off by my local critter friends; wishing me a fond and safe farewell as I move to Richmond.
(Cue the move.)
I moved to Richmond on Thursday, June 14, 2007. I consider my time of residency change to be the time I arrived, 7:15 PM. The first time I left my new home was the next day at about 2:30-3:00. So, less than 20 hours after moving to "the city", and less than two blocks worth of driving as a citizen, I bagged my first squirrel. Hmph.