Bambi Got Run Over By A Civic

Does anyone recognize the song I was referencing?

Well it's a little lot late, but I'm finally getting around to writing about what happened to my poor car at the beginning of December. But first, I must warn you - if you have a great love for deer, don't keep reading this post. (Haha) I used to be one of those people who was against venison and hunting, always wondering who on earth could ever do that to Bambi's mom, but after a few events concerning a stupid deer...well let's just say that my position has drastically changed.

Until my deer incident, I'd never been in a car accident. No speeding tickets, no parking tickets, nothing. I actually took great pride in that. Well, that's all out the window now.

I can't put into words what it was like that morning. It's all somewhat of a blur because after it happened I was riding on a wave of adrenaline, followed by shock. I remember driving along (ironically, having just gotten my car tuned for winter & oil-undercoated), minding my own business, humming along to the radio when I saw a deer emerge out of the trees on the passenger side of the road. I remember clearly thinking "Oh, a deer! I never see one this close to the road, and it's running this way! Deer hop kind of funny....it's still running this way...there's no way we'll hit each other" and BAM! The deer slammed right into my passenger door...its back end smacked my rear-passenger door. I noticed that there was deer spit on my window.

Yes, those are some very detailed thoughts but that's probably the clearest part of the whole debacle. And all of this happened in just a few seconds, just long enough me to start braking (but not too hard, because I had noticed a car approaching in my rear-view mirror) but not long enough for me to have slowed down enough for the deer to hit the front of my car. In fact, I'm glad that it hit the side of car because it could have been so much worse if I'd hit the deer straight on. I actually didn't damage the front of my car at all, which made this an easy insurance claim. The deer fur on my car didn't hurt either.

I remember screaming, because I could see the look in the deer's eyes as we hit and it scared me. The deer pushed me a little bit towards the middle of the road but I didn't swerve. It was then that I was riding a wave of adrenaline, and wisely pulled over to the side of the road where there was more shoulder. I saw the deer stumble to the other side of the road in my rear-view mirror. I thought that there would be minimal damage (from a full-grown male deer, running full speed at me? That was dumb) and that everything would probably be fine. I was shaking so badly that I could barely dial Jeff's number. I think I was pretty incoherent on the phone, considering that I couldn't really tell him where I was. He told me to get out of the car to see if there was damage...and that's when I fell apart.

My first glimpse of the damage

This door was really dented too, it's just hard to tell in this picture

Yep, that's deer fur stuck in my door handle

As soon as I got off the phone with Jeff I heard my phone ring again. I was outside staring at my car, wondering how on earth I'd be able to pay for this much damage. My caller id showed that it was the company that I'd had a second interview with the day before. My heart stopped, because I knew that they were calling all the applicants to say either yes or no, and I just thought to myself 'please don't be more bad news...I won't be able to handle much more'. Luckily, it was good news :) I made my new boss laugh when he was going over the details when I said to him "I'm sorry I'm not soaking all this in right now, I just got hit by a deer and I'm on the side of the road talking to you!" This all happened within 30 minutes, which just goes to show you how quickly your life can change. 

Around $4700 in damages and a week later, I had my car back. The repair shop I took it to did a great job, and although the experience was a life-affirming one for me, I'll always be more cautious around deer now! 

Bambi, you better watch out, I'm gunning for you!