Monday afternoon we lost a great neighbor. Dixie loved her family and was in return loved very deeply by them as well. Only one person saw Dixie lose her life, the person who was driving the car that hit her.

Unfortunately that person did not even bother to stop and check on her, or even bother to see which family on the street she was a member of.

Dixie was a beautiful animal and was featured in the photo that won first place in our snow photo contest earlier this year. When she was outside, she always stayed in her own yard, usually lying in the driveway. I never called out to her when I was outside because I did not want her to cross the street into our yard. She would usually acknowledge your presence with a few barks, not mean barks, just ones to let you know she saw you.

One of the first things I noticed about Dixie was as soon as she came outside she would go and get the newspaper out of the mailbox and take it back to her family. The mailbox is on the same side of the street and she would not even get in the way of traffic as she retrieved the newspaper.

Our street is like many others in Hartselle, folks drive way too fast for a residential neighborhood. The street is not very long and connects Sparkman to Railroad. However, many times you would think it was a practice track for Talladega.

As I mentioned earlier, the only person to see Dixie was the one who was probably speeding down the street. If one had been driving at a slow speed, which I believe is 25 mph in a residential zone, I believe they would have been able to see her and stopped before this happened.

I want to think if this was an unavoidable accident, the person driving would have at least stopped to check on this poor dog. The person who hit Dixie would have known they hit her.  I would think that anyone would know she belonged to someone close by and would want to help her.

I ask all to please slow down in our neighborhoods. As the weather warms and the days are longer, more folks young and old will be outside walking down the streets. There are not only four-legged family members out and about but many young children will be outside playing as well. The person who hit Dixie could have just as easily hit a small child. If you think people are driving too fast in your neighborhood, call the Hartselle Police Department at 256-773-3006. They will be happy to monitor the area.

Maybe we can stop another little boy and his family from having to grow up without their beloved dog.

Randy Garrison is the president and publisher of the Hartselle Enquirer.