I had a traumatic experience on my recent vacation. It is a very sad event. There was a dog running around a parking lot of a Motel 6. I ran over it and it died. The employee who was the owner arrived a bit later when called by another employee. I felt so sad and shaken, but I am sure nothing like what the owner had felt and probably is still feeling. I will not describe what I saw.

He told me that it was his dog for three months and had invested time and money in his dog, a significant emotional investment. He was having another employee watch after his dog while it ran around the complex. The dog had a leg bandaged where apparently there was a previous injury.

He demanded a sizable amount of money.. He wanted my name and address. I decided not to give him this information. But I did everything I could to show him how terrible I felt about what I did to him. I offered to help in any way I could aside from the money. But then the conversation went terribly wrong. I understood his grief, but I did not know how to handle this situation.

Now that I have been thinking back to that terrible accident, I have been feeling really depressed and overwhelmed. I guess this is in part is normal. But I am having problems functioning. I need to function in order to take care of my mother which is a full time job.

Does anyone have a suggestion on how to cope with this? Any suggestions at all?VI wish I could bring that dog back to life.