Show compassion and tell pet owners of accidents

On Tuesday, Dec. 27, one of our beloved family pets came up missing. This was not unusual. "Roscoe" (Jack Russell terrier) had been nicknamed "Houdini, because no matter what we tried he managed to get out several times. I've spent a lot of time these past two years searching for my little dog. Quite often he ended up at the animal shelter and they would call us to come get him. A few times he got to share a bed overnight with some children, he was so friendly. He just liked to roam and check out the neighborhood. He was never very far from home when he would be picked up by us or a kind citizen who made sure he was either brought home or taken to PAS safely.

On this occasion we spent two heart wrenching days looking for him, calling anyone who might be able to help locate him, PAS, animal control, the police station. We just wanted to find him. I placed an ad in the Daily Bee for Thursday morning hoping someone might have him and call me. Unfortunately, the call came that we were dreading. Roscoe had been hit by a car right in front of our house on Tuesday. We never saw him there because he's white and he just looked like snow. It was absolutely devastating. I appreciate the woman who called to tell me she saw him there. At least we knew what happened to him. Thank you.

The reason I write is just to say accidents happen. Roscoe should not have been in the road, but he was. He was so quick, I'm sure nobody could have stopped in time to avoid hitting him. I understand that. What I don't understand is why they did not knock on a door to let someone know. There are not a lot of houses there, just ours, our neighbor and some apartments across the street. Our family pet lay there for two days. Again, accidents happen, I am not blaming anyone for this. I just believe the compassionate thing to do if you have hit somebody's pet is to knock on a door or two, or at least call the shelter and animal control so someone is aware when the families are looking for their missing pet.

SHERI JONES

Sandpoint