I almost hit a big damn black cow this morning. I was slowly waking up, thinking how
miserable the day was going to be, when I saw something moving close to the
shoulder. I couldn’t believe it. It was a poor cow that was loose and rambling
about. I called 911 and told them about
it and then told the Mamou route to watch for it when they head that way. The Mamou route, a different driver, had
already hit two deer. I’m telling you,
that little drive from Clearwater to Pine Prairie, or vice versa, can be a
wilderness adventure. When I first started
the job I was on the Eunice route. We
were heading down there one morning when, just into Clearwater, we both saw a shape
in the road and a “hand” sticking up. It’s
dark. It’s the bon matin. The driver, I was the helper then, said
really loud, “what the (expletive) was that!”
I said, “I think it, I hope, yeah, it was, a (expletive) alligator, man!” He said, “are you (expletive) (expletive)
me!?” I said, “No man, it was a
(expletive) alligator, I saw the tail and that was a claw sticking up, not a
hand!” We’re professionals and we don’t
use expletives at work, however, due to the intense drama of the situation at
hand, we (expletive) said a lot of (expletive) bad words to express our
anxiety. Anyway, back to this morning, when I got down
at Paul’s I saw a deputy there. I asked
him if they had caught the cow. He told
me they had to catch four of them.
This is a list of animals I ran into. The majority of the time it was them that
that ran into me, like that deer. I hate
it when it happens because I love animals, especially dogs. They are accidents. It’s bad when it’s a deer, cow or horse. When I was having my car fixed the repair man
told me he had seen some bad cases. For
an example he told me of an instance where a deer had rolled over when it got
hit and crashed through the windshield, slashing the driver’s neck with its
hoof. It was a terrible accident.
chien/chienne – dog
chat/chatte – cat
rat de bois – possum
poule – chicken
cocodrie – alligator
écureuil – squirrel
canard – duck
aigrette – egret (It didn’t hit but came close. At last second it veered off and flew
opposite)
chaoui – raccoon
tortue – turtle
galette – just kidding
chevreuil - deer
armadillo (no French word for it. It came late from Texas. But Mom said Mémère would say “arma-dell)