Editor:
This afternoon, July 14, driving home along Redrooffs Road, I slowed for a young doe crossing just before Southwood Road. I instinctively looked around for more and spotted a fawn, just days old, frolicking gleefully down a driveway on the left. It was reveling in its newfound world, frisky, inquisitive … and trusting. I breathed a sigh of relief and sent a wish to this little one, for a long and healthy life.
On Saturday, while driving to Sechelt, I saw a shape on the road – one of the fawns that roam through the empty lot near Evans Road and Redrooffs. The white SUV ahead of me sped past. I stopped. This little fawn was still warm, eyes just glazing over, bare bone showing. Its mother and sibling were standing under the tree nearby, bewildered. Three cars stopped to help move the fawn to the side of the road, sing a song and call Capilano Highways.
Coming home from the Halfmoon Bay Country Fair on Sunday, I hit a dog. I was going the speed limit. It just jumped out. The owner was very kind, the dog (I hope) is OK, but I was a basket case. It was too much after seeing the dead fawn.
What to do? There are signs all along Redrooffs, put out by homeowners, to slow down. Somehow, the message isn’t getting across. Driving into Sechelt today, I saw another fawn on the side of the road, and friends said later that the doe had been hit too.
I feel heartsick. We’re all driving too fast or distractedly.
Uli Hadeler, Halfmoon Bay
