Should I feel guilty?

I'm not writing on my team's progress thus far but on what happened to me before going to the office this morning. You see, I had to be at the office by 9am and was already running late by the time I left home. I quickly got into my car, pressed the alarm button and closed the gate hoping that I could reach the office on time. I got onto the road within seconds and slowly passed by my neighbours' homes to exit my residential area when I saw a black and white pedigree of unknown breed (PUB) (sorry, I was really running late!) running helter skelter on the same road ahead of me with an Indonesian maid chasing after it - must be an alternative way to get the Indonesian maid to lose some weight, I thought!

As there was a blue Suzuki Vitara wanted to pass through the same tiny road, I stopped my car just a few blocks away from the PUB's owner's house to give way to it and all the while the irritating PUB was running on the road, doing a zig zag, together with the Indonesian maid. By this time, I could not be bothered at the PUB and the maid as I thought the PUB had gone hiding under one of the parked cars behind me. After the blue Suzuki Vitara passed through, I was all ready to speed off (no, I didn't do that, of course!) but suddenly I heard a thud from outside my car. Crap, did I just scratch my neighbours' cars? I looked at my rear view mirror to check whether my prediction was true but nope, my car was at least 20 inches from other cars parked on the road.

I drove on a few metres and just wanted to make sure, decided to looked at my front view mirror and holy cow SOAB, the PUB was lying down motionless behind whilst the maid was shrieking her lungs out at the dog. Oh no, wtf - matike anjing tu??!!

I got out from the car, walked towards the maid and by this time the owner came out from the house to take the PUB away from the road, hugging it tightly on his chest. He settled himself at the porch whilst I stood outside the gate with the maid.

Maid : Aku suruh kamu berhenti, kamu nggak!!!

Me : (still calm) Saya mana boleh dgr kamu suruh saya berhenti! Lagipun saya mmg tak boleh nampak anjing ni dari dalam kereta. Saya sudah berhenti kereta tadi kasi sama itu Vitara jalan, bila saya jalan balik mana boleh nampak! (Towards the end of my sentence, I was already raising my voice. So typical of me)

Maid : Itu anjing itu (pointing towards a mongrel-looking (but could be of rare breed) owned by PUB's opposite neighbour) suka kejarin sama anjingnya.

(In between, the owner called his wife to come outside to look at the PUB and gosh, she was too shocked to say anything!)

Me towards the owner : I'm terribly sorry. I couldn't see you dog. It was running on the road and I didn't know it was under my car when I was stopping. I'm really sorry (I said sorry at least 10 times, ok!)

Owner : (Too shocked to say anything, he just showed his hands to me saying "It's ok" softly whilst his wife looked on at the PUB calling its name but damn, it didn't respond at all)

Knowing that I cannot be of much help, I asked the maid whether should we bring the dog to the vet and she just looked at me blankly and continued saying "Mati sudah anjing itu? Udah lama anjing itu sama tuannya".

Ho-kay, I really cannot help to make sure that the PUB's okay or not because the owners were hugging it tightly. So I decided to excuse myself, said sorry again to the owners and my departing words to the maid were "Saya kena pergi, saya taktau mcm mana nak tolong. Kalau ada apa-apa, saya di rumah 40".

I drove off to the office, entertained guests and came back home just a while ago.

I have never owned a pet before but I don't despise animals in general. I like my aunt's Yang Mak, a mixed-Persian-cat-turned-kucing-kampung although it is very aggressive towards us. It's huge and looks so cute when sleeping as it sleeps with all fours legs stretched. I felt terrible with the fact that I may have killed the PUB earlier this morning. So, I kept repeating the same question to my colleagues, "SHOULD I FEEL GUILTY?"

Majority of my colleagues said that it was not my fault and don't bother about it too much. A colleague had a similar incident and told me again and again "They don't think like humans, ok! That's why I langgar the kittens". Good answer.

Another colleague told me "No, it wasn't your fault. The owner should not have let it come out from the house compound without a leash". Even better, complete with a logical reason.

I asked my aunt, uncle, cousin and Mr. T and received mixed replies. Hell, apa-apa lah!

If the PUB's owners accused me of killing their beloved pet, I have my defence ready. Seriously, if that happens, expect an update from me real soon. I'm off to sleep feeling half-guilty (hahahahaha).

Saya Rok(iah)!