by Heather Warner

Created on: November 25, 2008

Many people don't initially realize the responsibility of having a pet. Often, they are simply thinking how cute the animal is, or how cool it would be to own it, or possibly that the animal would fill the void and loneliness in their lives. Thought isn't given to the expense of veterinary bills, feeding the animal, caring for the animal, or keeping it safe, and healthy.

Recently on a road trip, I was travelling a major highway when, up ahead, I saw large dog prancing around in the middle of the road. Two vehicles slammed on the brakes, and swerved to miss him. I got up to him and stopped my car in the middle of the highway, put on my hazard lights, opened my door and grabbed his collar. My mother was on the trip with me, she got out of the car and came around to him, took him by the collar and carefully walked him across to the shoulder of the road. I pulled my car over, out of the traffic, and got out. We looked for tags, but there were none. The owner took the time and thought to place a collar on the dog, but no identifying tags. We were faced with the question of what to do with this dog. He was a very friendly dog, and very large. We noticed his hind leg was healing from what appeared to be a pretty nasty wound. It looked as if he had been hit by a car once before.

My mother noticed a house about a quarter of a mile up the road, she thought he may belong to that home. She walked him up, and I drove behind them. We reached the house and a middle aged woman and another dog came walking toward us. The woman called a name that I did not fully hear, and the large dog took off toward her. I momentarily felt relieved, that we were able to return the dog unharmed to his owner.

My mother and I got back in the car and began back onto the highway, when suddenly, I had to slam on the brakes. The other dog that had been with the woman ran straight in front of my car. I luckily stopped short of hitting the animal. The woman nonchalantly strolled over to get this dog. I was enraged, and wanted to shout my disgust at this woman. How could she be so irresponsible as to have these two beautiful dogs just running free on a major highway? Not bothering to attempt to restrain them from the dangers that were present. I kept my disgust quietly to myself and continued on my trip after the woman retrieved the second dog from the road. My mother and I discussed our feelings about the situation amongst ourselves as we traveled.

Situations like this are often tragic. I hate to see an

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