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It was a fairly uneventful day, especially for a birthday. We had opened presents(or rather cards containing checks) the night before and had nothing special to do. At about 8:00pm we left our mom's house for our dad's. Again, a rather uneventful trip, until about 15 minutes into the 45 minute journey.

I was driving, my brother in the seat next to me, no adults. We were just coming down the far side of a small hill (maybe 100ft change in elevation) and without warning there was a large black thing(later revealed to be a dog) in the middle of the road. I swerved without thinking, and it's good that I had. I feel certain that I would have hit it had I not acted what I did.
I straighten the car back out and continued driving for a few seconds, allowing my brother and I time to process what had happened. I turned the car around, perhaps 600 feet past the dog. No cars were in sight, so it seemed safe enough.
We drove back up to the site and turned around, illuminating the dog with the headlights.
In this time a car or two came by, I don't really remember, and we were able to get a close look at the dog. It was laying on it's side, legs sticking out. As we approached it moved its head a little revealing a mass of coagulated blood spilled on the pavement. It had obviously been hit and was not in very good shape.

We retreated to the proximity of our car silently, internally debating want action to take. I could not consciously leave it here like this. This problem was taken from my mind relatively quickly, within about 30 seconds(my brother says 60sec.) when a police car showed up.
The car appeared ordinary at first, but a spotlight came up and swiveled from us, to the dog, to us, and finally, back to the dog as it rolled to a stop.

The conversation that ensued was short. He asked if we had hit it, we replied that we did not think so, without hesitation. The police officer took his own examination of the dog. He then handed his flashlight to my brother and headed toward nearby houses.

I don't know if he spoke to any one or not, but when he returned a few minutes later, he took his flashlight back and dragged the dog off the side of the road. The dog showed no response.

With that done, the policeman asked us our age, reason for driving, and, as a tack-on, if we were twins. We quickly replied, yes and that we were 17 as of today. He immediately wished us a happy birthday, and listened as we explained that we were traveling from our mom's house to our dad's house. Some time about here he thanked us and said that we had done the right thing.

The business being concluded, he permitted us to go. We pulled back onto the road, over the blood stain that is undoutably still there, and headed for home. This time my brother was driving, as I too shaken up by the whole event. I got the job of calling our parents and explaining what happened.

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So pretty much, out first encounter with a police officer, away from our parents and in a bad situation did not result in any punishment. Let's hope that the next encounter is as good.