Cat-like Reflexes

I was driving Michael, Joey, and myself home from Wasilla after dark. Michael and I were conversing about the day's events. Then, all of a sudden, a huge dark brown thing is right in front on the car! Oh my God, it's a moose! A big moose. A moose that is way larger than my little Prius. We're on the highway...this really happens? I'm going to hit a large mammal with my car on a busy highway? You hear stories like this all of the time, but it's never going to happen to me. But, oh, it's happening. Right. Now. We were in the right lane. I see the moose. I can see the brown color of this moose's eye, she's so close. I don't know what came over me, but I swerved to the left, thinking "Whew! I missed hitting this thing head on"! But then I remember stories of moose that will run right into the side of your vehicle. Oh my God, Michael and Joey are on that side. I speed up as fast as my little Prius will go. I swerve back to the right once I think I've passed that moose. I am frantically looking to the side and front of my car making sure that have cleared the seen moose and that this moose didn't have friends in tow. We made it. We didn't hit that moose, or any other moose that night. Thank you God. Thank you so much for looking out for us. After I knew we were safe, I broke down in tears. Wow, that was so close. I then start going through all of the "what ifs?": If we would have hit that moose, we probably would be dead. My Prius is no competition for a moose. However, if we were in the Durango, we probably would have flipped with the way I swerved the vehicle. What if I was looking over the the left that very second? What if Joey was awake and crying and I was paying more attention to him crying than to the road? What if? What if? What if? Well, those "what ifs" didn't happen. We made it. My cat-like reflexes came out. Michael told me that it was more like my motherly instincts came out. I think I may have to agree with him on this one. I know that I may have reacted the same way if I didn't have Joey or Michael in the car, but I know that they both were the first things on my mind when the moose was by the side of the car. If I don't get this Prius away from that moose, she is going to run into us...into Michael and Joey. I must get my family out of danger. When you think about saving your child over yourself, then you are a mother. Just something else that proves to myself that I'm becoming more and more of a mom every day.