MYOPIC OWLS HAVE BEEN THE BANE OF MY EXISTENCE...ONCE

I read Jane's post about a poor little squirrel smushed in the road and it reminded me of something...well, actually, a lot of things.
I rescue animals whenever the situation presents itself. It has been mostly turtles, but there have been dogs and cats and all manner of rodentia over the years.
My ex and I were on our way home from baby birthin' class one night and came upon a kitten in the road, hips crushed. $300.00 and a few months later this kitten repaid me for my trouble by copping a squat in my vintage Les Paul guitar case which smelled like cat pee for years. Thanks for the glandular memories...you're welcome, by the way.
But that's not what it reminded me of.
Me and a buddy were on one of our annual trips to Colorado. It was pre-dawn and we were cruising through west Texas...Kearnes County...You can make Colorado in about 16 hours if you have the wearwithall, which we had. About 2 grams worth.
Anyhow, my buddie's driving down this 2 lane in the middle of nowhere in my '66 ford pick up (hey...I like trucks) and I got the window down. Suddenly this thing swoops over the fenceline and slams into the passenger side mirror and hangs there...scaring the shit out of us both.
My buddy pulls off the road and the creature falls off the mirror brace.
We get out to see what it is...it is an owl, a big, beautiful horned (?) owl. And it's not dead. it's neck is obviously broken.
We need to dispatch it, but with what? We had a gun, but both agree a 357 magnum blackhawk is overkill. We had knives, but neither one of us wants to put the stab action on poor mister owl.
We had a "samoan war club"...actually it was a louisville slugger my buddy confiscated from a patient at the center we worked at and he had cut it down and adorned it with graphite inlays for me ala' Hunter S. Thompson's "Curse of Lono" club he killed the marlin with.
So, here we are, on the side of some lonely road in west Texas, crouched down over a mortally wounded owl with a cryptically decorated sawed off bat...our dogs peering out from the conestoga cover we had made out of 3/4 inch PVC and a wind tarp (Fucking hippies :) ) and I dispatch the owl with the samoan war club. I had to hit that owl on the noggin 3 times...it was the longest minute of my life to date. I took some feathers to remember him (or her) by. I still have them...somewhere in the attic. I still have the club, and the memory of that owl.
We got back in the truck and drove in silence for a long time