What a weird and terrible experience. We were driving home early in the dark wintery night from grabbing some groceries, and I don't remember much that is specific. It kind of got wiped from my memory after the sudden shock. I just remember we were talking about deer.
Possibly the dangers they pose leaping in front of cars? I don't know. Because a deer leaped in front of the car. "OH SHIT!" Came out of my mouth. Fe02 hit the brakes, there was no time to do any maneuvering. We hit the deer with a thud and then stopped at the side of the road, panting for breath.

A car had been driving toward us, they would have seen us slam on the brakes and hit the deer, in fact the deer would have crossed right in front of them with only seconds to spare. They didn't stop. Did they just not care or were they startled too and didn't know what they could have done? We would have stopped. Made sure everything was ok. That's the kind of people we are.

We sat there for a minute, stunned. What now? Check on the damage. Grabbed the flashlight, got out and looked at the front of the car, no headlight broken that was lucky. Two big cracks in the body, but not structural just cosmetic. Then we saw the deer. It hadn't continued into the forest, and it wasn't dead. It was sitting alive trying to move and not able to. Broken back legs? Spine? Don't know. But it was horrible to see this injured animal struggling to get up and unable to. Just awful.

There wasn't a damn thing we could do.
We called the police on our cellphone and waited. Once the officer showed up he told us he would take care of it.
So we sat there in the car in silence, in the cold and dark unable to see anything and just waited, each second stretched on for an eternity.

The sound of a single bullet being fired rang out.
Then we went home.