One night, at about 2:00 a.m., I was driving back to my apartment in Manhattan from my Mom’s house in New Jersey down Rt 80, a large three to four lane major highway. At this hour, the roads were clear. I had my little Scottie dog sitting comfortably on my lap as she always loved to do while we are driving. Sure, I recognize this isn’t the safest place for a dog but I loved the feeling of her resting on my lap.

We are driving down the middle lane of the highway when I see a large deer begin to run across the highway. He is pretty far away and I’m confident I can avoid him, after all I’ve never had a car accident before in my life. I put the brake on and start to steer the car in the opposite direction of which the deer is moving, I also gauge his speed and there seems to be no problem. Just then the deer then slows down and because I hadn’t slowed down enough myself (assuming he would continue running across the highway) I struck the deer going about 60 miles an hour.

I hit him STRAIGHT on with the front of my car, he flies off somewhere and I didn’t even see him after that. I was shocked and the impact was extreme. I’m able to steer the car to the side of the road. My car is smoking and the hood is completely crunched up. My little dog’s heart is racing as is mine! The miracle is that the airbag did not release. My dog, in a very vulnerable location (who remained on my lap the entire time), and I did not get harmed at all! The car is not drivable, the front end is complete smashed in, so I call for the tow truck.

The next day I drove down the road (in a rental car!) to see if I could spot the deer. I saw a large but young looking buck lying on the side of the road looking surprisingly peaceful and with his body fully intact (not one of those mangled, bloody road kills).

I mentioned the incident to Datta and he said it removed karma. Often times a person, animal or thing will need to take our karma. In this case I’m grateful to that deer who gave his life and Datta for keeping my pup and me safe in the process. Om Dattatreya Siva Baba