On June 7, 2000, my dog Max was struck and killed by Christopher White, formerly of Billy Court, Medford, NY, while he was speeding down John Roe Smith Avenue on his motorcycle. This is what I'd like to say to him:
The dog in this picture is my dog, Max. This photo was taken when he was maybe four or five; his birthday was February 17th. His mother was my sister’s dog, Fuzz. He was 7 when you struck and killed him. The girl in the picture, is my niece, Catie. She knew Max before I did, when he was born ~ I met him a few days later. I don’t have kids of my own yet, and being well on the other side of 35 am not sure if I’ll ever have that pleasure. Max was about the closest thing I had to my own kid ~ and anyone who has a pet they love will understand me when I say that. He was sweet and affectionate, and was always happy to see me. He had this funny way of giving you a dog-hug ~ he loved everybody. I can’t tell you how many happy times he gave me.
June 2000, you were driving your motorcycle down our street in Medford ~ our child-filled, residential street ~ when my nephew Timothy, who was 7 at the time, opened the gate to our side yard by mistake. My sister, Debbie, had just gotten home, and had three of her four kids with her: Catie, Timothy, and Jonathan, who was two and a half. I’m not sure why Timothy opened the gate; he might have been going to throw something in the garbage. In any case, Max saw “his” kids, and ran out to play.
Before I go any further, let me say one thing ~ I am strongly for leash laws, and feel animals should be kept on their owners’ property. I believe dogs should be in their yards, and cats should remain inside their homes. If you have a pet, it should be considered part of your family, and be treated as such. There are too many ways for them to be hurt, like obnoxious kids being mean, fights with other animals, diseases to be caught, and, of course, people like you driving too fast on residential streets. There are dogs like that in most neighborhoods, and I feel their owners are wrong to let them run around loose. My dog was never allowed to run around outside the yard ~ there is not a single neighbor on this street that would not say the same thing. This was purely an accident, and you know it, which is why your later actions are unforgivable.
A seven-year-old child made a mistake, and then you showed up. According to my sister, Max was running around in circles near the bottom of the driveway; he didn’t dart out into the street. If you had been driving a little slower ~ and there is absolutely no way you were doing the speed limit of 30 mph ~ you might have seen him in time to slow down and go around him, or possibly even stop. You have not a single excuse for your part in what happened. Max weighed seventy-five pounds. The impact threw him over fifty feet away, in front of my sister and her children, who had all known him since birth, either his or their own. I came out after hearing my sister's horrified exclamation, "Oh, NO!," to find her sitting across the street, cradling Max as he died, my niece and nephews crying hysterically in the driveway. Apparently, you fell off your motorcycle and I remember seeing you sitting on the curb, and asking you if you were okay, and you said yes. Then, to be honest, I took you at your word, and forgot about you until later that night, when the EMT’s came to get their cars, and stopped to talk with us. When we asked, they said that you were fine, that they had wanted to stop and make sure I was okay.
I wasn’t. I’m still not ~ there are still times now, years later, when I think about him and my eyes tear up, or I just cry. He was my dog, a part of my family and your reckless behavior took him away from me. You were speeding, without regard for anyone else ~ what if one of my nephews had been the one running around at the bottom of the driveway? Timothy weighed about 70 pounds then (and Jonathan was even smaller), so a child might have been the one lying there, and died in my sister’s arms instead of Max.
I understand, through next-door neighbors whom you apparently know as well, that you offered to buy me a puppy. I declined. At that point, a week or so after the incident, being a fairly pragmatic person, I wasn’t mad at you. Being mad at you wouldn’t bring Max back, just keep me bitter. I actually thought it was nice of you to make the offer; if I knew then what I do now, I should have taken you up and had you buy the most expensive dog I could find. However, I'm not that kind of person; I'm not like you. I don't believe in buying dogs anyway, because there are so many on death row in our shelters. In any case, no dog, even now, could ever replace Max. As of the time I write this, Max is the only dog I’ve had on my own, rather than a family pet.
The papers came in August 2000. I find it incredible that you have had the nerve to bring suit against my family, my sister as the homeowner, then my mother, in error, believing her to be Max's owner. Apparently, there was some mix-up, because my mother brought Max’s body to the shelter to be disposed of. Unfortunately, none of us had (or have) a whole heck of a lot of money, because otherwise I never would have let him go there. In any case, my mother signed for him there, so your lawyers picked on her, saying that she’s the owner, and that they’re oh-so-sorry about the dead dog, but they were representing your interests. What interests? What permanent damage do you have? What is gone from your life? My sister called her insurance company, and things being the way they are in this world, you’ll probably get something out of this horror. Well, you don’t deserve anything.
I cannot even tell you how mad I get, thinking about this whole thing. I understand from our mutual neighbors that you are fine, and were in fact right back to work, and retrieved your motorcycle within days. You don’t seem to have sustained any permanent damage. If you had insurance co-pays or similar bills that you had problems with, and you would have come to our door, neighbor to neighbor, human being to human being, and asked for help, you would have gotten it. You do share a good part of the responsibility for this accident ~ I believe the majority of it ~ and I believe you must have felt so as well, since you offered to buy me another dog. I don’t know what kind of person you are, but right now I don’t have a good opinion of you; in fact I believe you to be one of the worst kind of people - one who causes others pain through your own irresponsible actions, and then try to profit from those actions.
If you have any reason besides pure greed for suing my family members, I’d really like to know what that would be. Exactly what damage ~ what permanent damage ~ was done to you. Nightmares, maybe? Sorry, I can’t have any sympathy for you. My sister and her children saw that dog, an animal they knew and loved, fly through the air after hearing the impact of your speeding motorcycle hitting his body ~ 75 pound dog, fifty-two feet ~ and drop to the ground. My sister held him while he died ~ he died. My dog is dead; I’ll never pet him again, he’ll never give me another dog-hug, or run to greet me when I come in the room, or follow me around, or sleep at my feet. He’s dead ~ what did you lose?