R.I.P., Sergio

We had this huge opossum in our neighborhood who used to eat birdseed from under our bird feeder. I named him Sergio.

(Not actually Sergio, but this is what he looked like)

Last night, right in front of our house, someone hit Sergio with their car. And then they drove on. But they came back, found that it was just a mortally wounded opossum, and left again (backing down the road, lest they actually have to drive by the poor thing). Thanks, assholes. You're really great humans to leave a wounded animal in the road to bleed to death.

We, or rather Dr. Nate (I was in the bedroom with the t.v. turned up and my fingers in my ears - I didn't want to go out and see/hear poor Sergio like that), took care of it. Dr. Nate would have taken care of it himself but we simply don't have any implement in our house that would have easily dispatched a very large opossum, and we didn't quite know how to get a very large, mortally wounded, and rather enraged opossum into the car to take to the University's wildlife emergency clinic.

Interestingly enough the city won't do anything about wild animals and they gave us the number of a wild animal removal/trapping service. The nice man came over right away and put poor Sergio out of his misery and took him out of the road. All for only $45! Which I think is a pretty good price.

I saw the car when it came back to see what it had hit, and I'm pretty darn sure it was a silver Impala. And so Dr. Nate and I took a walk around our neighborhood and did find a silver Impala parked about a block away from where we live. Unfortunately, Dr. Nate wouldn't let me sneak into the house's carport to see if there was blood on the front of the car. Something about trespassing and the fact that in jail they take your shoelaces away from you. (Note: I was wearing sandals). I walked by the house again this morning, but the car was already gone.

Either way, there are days I wished I wasn't an atheist so that I could believe in hell. Because I'm sure there's a special place in hell reserved for the sub-humans who leave defenseless animals to die like that.

And, to the person who did leave poor Sergio lying in the road: I would suggest you make a $45 donation to the University of Illinois' Wildlife Clinic. Maybe that would earn you back a karma point or two.