I dont know how many pets we lost 

To the rural route
Too many
We lived close to the road
 
I remember when a sweet momma cat 
Got hit by a car
Her back-end flattened
I had been shooting baskets
By myself, in our driveway
I saw it all –
 
Somehow, Momma Cat
Made it to a creek bank
And howled –
Giving voice to her pain 
 
I dropped the basketball
Ran to retrieve my father 
And begged him to end her misery
 
He dropped all he was doing
(And he was a busy man)
And was swift in his administration of mercy
 
I admired him for that