Another death on the road




I was returning home from the Oak Canyon Park with my 6- year-old son the evening of Sept. 23 when I saw a small white, very furry dog running into traffic on Lindero Canyon Road just up from Thousand Oaks Boulevard.

I laid on my horn, hoping the dog would run off the roadway, slowed down my vehicle and put on my hazard lights. The car next to me swerved around it and it was then I noticed a pickup truck barreling down behind me.

Regardless of my hazard lights, the pickup impatiently swerved around me and slammed into the dog, tossing it into the air.

I heard my 6-year-old let out a gasp and told him to wait in the car while I tried to help.

The pickup truck continued on and I carefully got out of my vehicle, waving cars to slow for a minute. As I lifted the dying dog in my arms, it was at that moment that a man passing by in another vehicle lowered his window to say, “Bitch! Get off the road!”

I yelled back that I was taking a dying dog off the roadway and, yes, told him I wished it was he that was on the road instead!

The dog took his last breaths in my arms as I stood on the side of the road wondering if there was a small child, like my own, who would be heartbroken at the news that his dog passed away tonight.

A kind woman in a Jaguar did stop, and called the number we had found on Mojo’s collar. When there was no answer, she even went so far as to take the dog to the nearby Barkley to see if they could help.

We were both in shock at the insensitivity of both the driver who killed the dog and the passerby who cursed at me for slowing him down.

Of course the dog should have been properly housed, but be that as it may, does that allow us to throw all human decency out the window?

Diane Matt

Agoura Hills



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