Critters We've Collided With

It should be said from the beginning that we at Lamorinda Patch are bigtime animal lovers, the kind who think nothing of getting down and tussling with a rambunctious Labrador, who thrill at the sight of a Short-Eared Owl on the hunt, and even a rare glimpse of the wily local Coyote.

We believe in letting those creatures live among us as they try to put up with our ways, but sometimes the species collide with unhappy results - literally.

Take Patch reader Joanna Mylin's story, a cautionary tale that shows lightning really can strike twice on Lamorinda's country roads.

"Yesterday, my father and brother were driving home from work on Glenside Drive (just after turning right off Reliez Station Road) when a deer ran into the driver's side of my father's truck," she wrote. "The deer smashed the side of the pick-up all the way to the back bumper, bending the metal bumper away from the car. After the collision the deer was extremely dazed, but left the scene under it's own power, seemingly unhurt. My father and brother were shaken-up, but completely unharmed. Luckily it was just the car that took the brunt of the damage."

Joanna goes on to say that this is the second time in the 20 plus years her family has lived in Lafayette that dad had an encounter with a deer - at the very same spot in the road.

"The deer make their home in the open drainage area between Reliez, Glenside, and Las Trampas," Joanna says wisely. "Maybe my Dad was just unlucky, but I wonder if this has happened to more drivers on this stretch of road. Have you or your readers heard of this happening to others?"

Well, yes, we have.

"I've been hit three times," says former Moraga resident Ben Deakins. "I worked late and drove St. Mary's Road when it was at its blackest. No one ever told me about the deer population in there."

Deakins' run-ins with deer ended with his totalling a vintage Mustang, a replacement Camaro, and a Lexus SUV.

"I thought the SUV would give us a fighting chance, at least," he said.  "I was wrong."

The folks we talked with said the damage to their vehicles was tough enough to take, but they also mentioned the trauma they felt wondering if the animal they'd hit had survived the collision.

Joanna's star-crossed family love animals, she said, but her mother's run-in with a local cow left her with little doubt about how the cow felt about being rammed.

"My mom has lived in Lafayette since she was 5 years old. She went to college at St. Mary's and was on St. Mary's Road near Bollinger Canyon when a cow stepped out in front of her new little 1980-something blue Mustang," Joanna says. "She did her best to stop, but couldn't. The cow went up onto her hood and windshield, proceeded to poop all over her car before it jumped off and kicked in her driver's side door."

The battered bovine wandered off into the brush, leaving Mrs. Mylin in shock and her car in need of a tow - and a wash.

"Needless to say, she did not go to class that day!" Joanna confirms. The family is looking for an old picture of the College Cow Collision and will send it in when they find it.