The impact propelled me forward a few inches and my first reaction was to step on the brakes of the car and bring it to a stop.  The car didn't obey, I was not at the wheel.  I only heard my faint voice asking: "What the hell was that?"  Then I head Tom's voice saying "I think we have us a dead dog"  The car continued to roll while my foot tried desperately to stop it and my voice refused to come to my throat to scream "STOP THE CAR!!!!!
 A few seconds later I heard a single bark, as if he was at my feet, then another.  Then I finally felt the car come to a stop as Tom made a right turn into a side street.  I panicked for a second thinking there was a live being under our car and the pain felt by the animal under our wheels was felt all over my body.  I opened the door and got out, when I looked under all I saw was a dark body nestled in between the right front wheel of the car and somewhere else.  The anxiety of knowing we hit a dog on the street at 35 MPH built in my body as I wanted to do something immediately to bring relief from the pain I could only imagine the poor animal felt.
 There was a man getting ready to get into his motorcycle at the restaurant in the corner.  Tom approached him and asked him if he could help us lift the car to get the dog out from under it.  He was willing, and along with my dad, they lifted the heavy body of the car.  My mother and I started calling the dog out but he couldn't move. I realized the dog wasn't going to come out on its own and as I reached to pull him out my mother stopped me immediately and asked me not to touch him.  In a second I realized it was a dangerous thing to do as I didn't know how sick this dog was and I could be in danger.
 My mother and I tried to call the dog from under the car as the efforts of three men to keep the car 6 inches from the ground waned.  I realized we needed more help so I ran to the restaurant to get more people to help.  Old Time Hamburgers was a familiar place to us.  We even knew all the waitresses and some of their customers.  It was a familiar place to get my favorite Turkey Burger with fries.  I wanted to run the few feet that separated me from the street to the entrance to the restaurant but I remembered the last time I sprinted just a few feet how my body took it, so I decided to just walk as fast as I could. The recent surgery I had was painfully reminded by my body whenever I tried to push it.
 I opened the door and spoke clearly and loud so everyone would hear me.  I said: "Excuse me, we need help out here, there is a dog stuck under a car and we need help lifting the car and someone to pull the dog out."  I immediately saw 3 large men get up from the chairs and run out of the door ahead of me.  I walked back to the car trying to remain calm but feeling the adrenaline building up in my body.  It was only a mere five minutes since the accident and I already felt helpless and useless at relieving the pain of the animal that laid under our car.
 Six men now stood around the front right wheel of the heavy car.  I heard Tom say "On three... one, two, three.." Then all of them lifted the car a foot from the ground.  A seventh man gently pulled the dog from the wheel of the car and stopped pulling on him as soon as he was out from under it.  It was a large dog with a sweet face.  My heart shrank as I felt the pain he was experiencing.  He was breathing fast as if trying to hold on to the little life that was left in his body.  I stood a foot away from him and wanted so desperately to touch him and tell him he would be Ok.  I only remembered that I could talk to him spiritually and tell him to hold on, that we would find something to do to save him.
 An eternity passed before anyone knew what to do.  I heard a man say there was nothing that could be done, it was not worth spending a thousand dollars on a stray dog and then not even know if it would live.  I thought it was a callus statement to make at this time, but I didn't comment.  Another of the men said the animal shelter would take him and give him medical attention.  I heard my dad ask where the nearest animal shelter was, there was no response from the man and we thought maybe he didn't even know.
 Tom kept saying over and over again how he didn't see the black dog in front of him until just moments before hitting him.  He was trying to justify his guilt feelings by saying the dog was black, it was dark and how he couldn't stop on time.  I knew all that and understood him but I felt at that moment that Tom didn't need comforting, that something needed to be done for the dog right at that moment.  We could deal with our feelings later, after we did something to save his life.  I just didn't know how we would go about it.  I was stunned and unable to put my body into action to do something.  I didn't want to stand around the car and chat with the crowd that slowly built around our car but instead I wanted to do something that would help the dog, however small my effort could be.