Road Kill. Spruce Grouse to be exact.
Grill 'em up fresh!

Lets get one thing clear. I had never up to this day hit anything with a car. I am usually very alert with quick reactions. This day was a little different. Just before the border into North Dakota from Saskatchewan a group of grouse run by and BOOM. Of course the inhumane thing to do would be leave them all over the road and let them suffer and die. I quickly stopped the car and we got up and collected a half decent sized grouse and put it in the trunk (to save for later??).

 

 

 

 

Anyway, we get to the border and everything is fine until "open the trunk please…click….um, what is with the bird in your trunk?" They ended up giving us no trouble except the border guard said no meat accross the border without a hunting permit. They took the bird. So we are on our way. Five minutes later, BOOM. Another grouse. This one was bigger and juicy and it wasn't getting confiscated. I pulled over the car and whipped out the coleman stove. The grouse relinquished a fair sized portion of meat and with potatoes and spices it made for the perfect lunch. So we are on our way.

 

 

 

Eventually it got dark. Now, I have never seen so many animals on the road before. I was swerving for racoons, rabbits, skunk, and foxes all trip. This particular night there was deer everywhere. They would pretend to jump out in front of the car but then just stand in the ditch. This happened for a couple hours until BOOM. Left side of the car sideswipes a bambi. Seriously, picture the cutest little baby dear. It was destroyed instantly by the hit. It was quick though – I drove back to get some pictures of the kill and it was already out cold. Then the worst hit of all.

 

 

 

Several hours later a something comes out of nowhere and connects with the tire. I turned the car around to see what it was – a bunny. Problem was that I only ran over half of it – It could only pull itself along by it's front paws. Everything else was broken as it looked up at the car with his big teary eyes. I did the only humane thing possible. I backed up a couple hundred yards and floored it. A quick hit put the bunny out of its suffering. Now the rest of the trip was ok and emotionally stable. I didn't ever mean to kill anything but it was just one of those days, ok!!

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