All Things Profane and Sacred

Today started off in a bad way. I was up at 6 to walk m'dog before hopping the bus to get to work. About halfway through our walk I saw a little black scottie dog wandering down a side street. He started to cross the street to go after us, and since I saw a bus comming down the road I called for him to come over by me. He made it accross the street in time and started snarling and snapping at my hound, who responded by howling and going for the little dog. I pulled them apart and briefly considered grabbing the scottie to take him home. It was still pretty dark, and I knew drivers wouldn't be able to see a dog that size. I saw he had on tags and assumed he didn't live far away, but I was afraid if I grabbed him he would bite me, and my dog wasn't too amused with his posturing, so I decided to leave well enough alone. I told the scottie, "You need to get home before you're hit by a car" and continued with my walk.

I wasn't even a block away when I heard a loud bang and the scottie screaming. The car that had hit him drove off. I walked back and found him huddled on the side of the road. He tried to get away from me, but only managed to roll onto his back with his hind legs kicking. I picked him up and brought him to the nearest streetlight to read his tag. Then I carried him home to his guardian, walked home, washed the blood off of me and hopped my bus into work.

So here I am, with a variety of emotions rolling through my head. Guilt that I didn't take him home to begin with. Anger at the driver for driving on without stopping to check up on the dog. Huge stompy anger at the dog's guardian for not keeping a closer eye on her dog. Then guilt for feeling angry at the owner, because I don't even know if it was her fault that he was out. Ok, I guess that's primarilly two emotions: guilt and anger.