Loss and Retrieval

It was with some sense of relief that we read, in today's newspaper, that the man whom yesterday's paper explained had lost his companion dog, had been re-united with it. An elderly man of 83, formerly a paediatrician, now long retired, whose wife had died two years previously.

His current constant companion was a mixed-breed Jack Russell-corgi, an overweight little dog, by the newspaper's account, to whom the man was very much attached. So very nice he was re-united with his dog.

When we read the original story our hearts went out to the plight of the dog. According to the original report, the elderly man had driven as usual, to a shopping centre he frequented. He parked his vehicle, a 2004-model Hyundai Sante Fe SUV, at a handicapped spot at the St.Laurent Shopping Mall, intending to do a bank transaction.

He locked the car doors, leaving the windows slightly rolled down to ensure his dog had sufficient air for his brief foray into the bank. When he returned shortly afterward his vehicle was gone, his dog with it.

The SUV was a silver-coloured vehicle, lots of those around, but with a personalized licence plate reading MED 47, indicating the year this former medical practitioner had graduated from Queen's University. The retired man's son hazarded the opinion that only professional thieves could have stolen his father's vehicle, to strip it for parts.

"I'm afraid if that is the case then the dog is probably dead. We're not worried about the car whatsoever, it's the dog", he said. Evidently, the 83-year-old retiree had fainted while in his son's presence a few days after the theft and abduction, then was taken to the hospital for a check-up.

He described his beloved pet as being "...a very obedient dog, and he loves to go in the car. I almost always take him with me, and I just hope he's all right." What a miserable thing to happen to a lonely old man and his valued canine companion. But they were re-united. Four days later. The dog, it would seem, no worse for wear, but undoubtedly more than a little anxious.

There had been water made available for him in the SUV, and the veterinarian who checked out his physical condition after his ordeal, pronounced him fit and healthy. Conjecturing that the little dog was so overweight the lack of food for those four days did him no real harm. So, wasn't it fortunate that the little dog was discovered still in the vehicle when it was recovered?

And where was the vehicle discovered to have been sitting for those four days? Why, at the very shopping centre where it had been parked. Not in the usual place where the retired man was wont to park it, but a little way off. Not recalling that he had parked it elsewhere, he immediately assumed it had been stolen.

The question here is should this man be driving a motor vehicle to begin with? His memory and judgement are obviously impaired. How about his mechanical responses, his ability to calculate distance and safety? This is an educated, elderly man, a medical doctor, yet incapable of evaluating his own condition of fitness.

A motor vehicle is a potentially dangerous object. Its weight, size and momentum all relate to the damage it is capable of inflicting if and when its driver is incapable of operating it safely. We've seen events where elderly drivers have run down and dragged victims along to their death without even being aware they'd hit someone.

Elsewhere, events where elderly drivers have lost control and ploughed into pedestrians or people waiting at bus stops, with predictable results. Time to take seriously the common-sense view that driving is a privilege, not a right. And there comes a time when certain individuals have lost that privilege.

Through no real fault of their own, unfortunately, but that's life.