I saw Limpy the other day. You know, Limpy, the deer in our neighborhood that we see hobbling by from time to time. I have noticed that other deer in our neighborhood tend to travel in groups, but not Limpy. Limpy is always alone, perhaps shunned by the deer community who see her as weak.

What happened to poor Limpy? How did Limpy become maimed? Most likely Limpy received her injuries in a collision with a car. And then there was poor Barn Kitty who was run down by a passing car on Pasturegate Lane. Wasn’t there a Barn Kitty2? Squirrels don’t seem to fare well on our roads either. When we start noticing animals in our community being killed and maimed on our roads by our cars, then perhaps it is time to acknowledge the need to slow down.

I say this as someone who has killed an animal with my car on Parker Mountain Road, a beautiful little happy-go-lucky beagle puppy who ran right in front of me as I drove down the road. Full disclosure: I also ran over a big, beautiful black snake and crushed a turtle. How easy it is to take a toll on our wildlife. If I had been traveling at a lower rate of speed, would I have hit and killed these animals? I don’t know, but there is a better chance I could have avoided them if I had been driving at a slower speed. (Wait! I backed over the turtle in my driveway, so speed doesn’t apply. Paying closer attention does.)

What can we do to better protect our wildlife? Tolerate the cones? Put in speed bumps? We can at least recognize that higher speeds kill and determine to slow down.

We might lose a few minutes. Animals lose their lives.