Nika and Noah, enjoying a great view
+++
On August 29, we posted a story about our daughter’s dog, Nika, who had been hit by a car in June. Fortunately, she wasn’t badly injured. But the young man who hit her took Megan to small claims court for the damages to his car caused when her dog hit his car.
The case was selected by Judge Judy, but the young man chose not to appear on her show – even though he stood to win the entire $1700 he was claiming. Before Megan had to appear at the mediation, I asked a psychic friend what she picked up on this. This woman is a TV writer whose psychic abilities she keeps to herself. Here was her response to my question about how this mediation hearing would unfold:
Unfortunately there feels like some law or statute that they can pin on Megan. I don’t think this man is a sympathetic person to the court, but he may have her on a legal technicality. I don’t think he’s going to get all the money he’s asking for. He would have done better on Judge Judy. He was right to be worried about being made fun of by her. He feels almost like he has some sort of disorder, like Aspergers. He just keeps repeating the same sentence over and over, which means he can’t let this go. The root of it feels biological. He appears unreasonable but he truly just gets stuck on something and he can’t let go. It even exhausts him. He’ll be talking about this 20 years from now as if it happened yesterday. He might be right, but nobody likes him.
It’s like: Did you run that stop sign? And the answer is yes. So Megan needs to have a good explanation for going against what the law is. They will still find that the law was violated, but she could mitigate the cost. Work on her reasonable explanation.
Today, September 9, Megan arrived promptly at court at 9:00 a.m., as the summons stipulated. She didn’t get in to the mediation until 10:45. Two women were mediating. The driver stated his case, Megan stated hers. Megan explained that her dog had seen a squirrel and had raced away from her, still leashed, and that there was a video to prove that she was still on her leash. The young man said he couldn’t stop his car to avoid hitting Nika as she ran out into the road.
Megan explained that she was a dog walker and artist who lived paycheck to paycheck and couldn’t pay him a lump sum. Her vet bill alone for this fiasco had been nearly $500. She offered $800 payable at $100 a month for eight months. The young man refused. Megan pointed out that he never asked her how her dog was doing, what her injuries were.
“Would that have made a difference in your willingness to pay me?” he asked.
“It would have made me less resistant to discuss things,” she replied.
And he said, “Your dog is irrelevant.”
Yeah? Irrelevant?
At this point, Megan broke down in tears and the mediators asked the man to leave the room. They asked Megan some questions about her work, her finances, and she explained her situation. What are you willing to offer him? $900 max, she said, paid out over 9 months. They asked her to leave the room and the young man returned. Megan believes the mediators convinced him to take her offer.
“I wish you’d told me from the beginning what you could afford to pay,” he said to her. “Then we could have avoided all this.”
He seemed to be missing the point that he had hit the dog with his car.
Two years ago, Nika was attacked by a pitt bull as she and Megan’s friend, Tim, were about to get in the elevator to go downstairs for a walk. The vet bill was $1,200. Megan didn’t take the man to small claims court. She tried to get him to settle amicably. She’s not someone who rushes to the law for recompense. In the end, she was reimbursed just $200 for that fiasco.
When I wrote to my friend about the small claims settlement, she replied:
So the “court” was on Megan’s side but technically she had to be found guilty. $900 is better than 1700.
Megan needs to do some meditating on all the dog issues. If any insight is passed along to me, I’ll share it with you, but this is old, deep stuff she’s working out. When I ask for help understanding it, it’s like going down a long dark tunnel. It feels like I’m looking at Shakespeare type clothing. And this sounds really weird – only it feels like the future. I see a triangle connection. I have no clue what any of this means. But the triangle has two long sides and a shorter bottom, like a candy corn. And it’s on its side so the point is pointing toward San Diego (Is that east from me? I think it is). This has nothing to do with San Diego, it’s only a direction sign for me.
I also see a third thing coming but she can cut the ties. Imagine a big pair of scissors and snipping to the left and right. Let this go. She will stand up a happier woman and be done with this thing. But her dog thanks her for remembering the bond they made. She’s done enough. It’s like she took on this payback to prove how sorry she was about something in the past/future, or a loyalty issue. She’s proven it, now she can move on. When she snips the ties, money will come more easily and paying him off will be a lighter experience, not the dirge it is now. I feel like she’ll sell a small painting, or something. It’s kind of a gift after this test she’s gone through.
I emailed my friend’s insights to Megan, and she’s still puzzling over it. My friend was certainly on track with the young man’s personality. I did some research today on Asperger’s – and lack of compassion, obsessiveness, and repetitive behaviors are some of the symptoms.
Onward.
This was an interesting post. The psychic insights were amazing.
As for the man, it seems like his Asperger’s and obsessiveness is punishment enough. He has to live with his obsession / inability to let go for the rest of his life. It makes me wonder what past life issue he might be paying for with this obsessive personality.
It’s a shame that we’re such a litigious society. If the harm was purely accidental and not intentional, people should let it go and not seek retribution or compensation. People want to make others “pay” for something, but I believe that has negative karma attached, as well. He sowed the seeds of his inability to let go and forgive. He wanted payment and someday, he might cause an accident where someone else demands a payment from him with an unwillingness to let go.
Interesting how there is a karmic tie between the dog and Megan, and how this situation might’ve been spiritually destined so that Megan can be tested so that a prior event can be balanced. I believe that there are always spiritual things going on behind every event that we think we know the full story on.
Great to see you, sansego! I agree with you that there are spiritual things running through most events.
Interesting thoughts from your psychic friend. The good thing is it’s finalised, whatever the outcome. It’s difficult to see how a dog would have done that much damage but I suppose Megan was technically at fault. As your friend says, now cut free from what happened and move on. Problems happen in life, we learn from them, it makes us who we are.
Just a comment about how much damage a dog can do to a car – Back in the 90’s I was living on an acerage and my husband was driving me down to take the bus to work. It was light out and we were both watching the road ahead when all of a sudden it seemed we had run over a log. There had been no log in the road. Then when he looked in the rear view mirror he found we had hit a rather large dog. Neither of us had seen the dog so it must have leaped out of the deep ditch on his side right under our tires. The poor creature was dead and we spent the rest of the morning trying to find the owner (who we felt had paid enough by losing the dog so we did not hold him responsible) and we then limped our honda civic down to town to be fixed. The impact had cracked some rod that had to do with the transmission and cost over a thousand dollars to fix and I missed a day’s pay. Our insurance deductible was 500.00 and our premiiums would have gone up so we just paid it on the credit card. We really could not afford this as I was the only one working and my daughter was attending college which was an expense for us as well – but we were the lucky ones the poor dog had paid with it’s life for following it’s instincts – neighbors in the area said the dog was a notorious car chaser and was always left to run the area freely – unlike Nika . So I am happy that the damage happened to the man’s car and not to Nika. Still hard on Megan who is working so hard to get ahead.
How awful for you two! But you certainly did what compassionate people do – you didn’t sue the owner!
The insight of there being a karmic debt to an animal is fascinating. I have often wondered about that.
I’ve often wondered the same thing!
This is really rather crazy, that she should have to pay anything. Nika is a little dog – how much “damage” can she have done, versus the damage a car does running into a dog? I know how painful it must be for your lovely, sensitive daughter, and how painful to run into a sociopathic person and have to deal with them. They are always destructive and exhausting.
I admire the compassion I see here for this person, but having had to encounter so darn many of similar people, with their obsessive little minds, I suppose it’s hard for me to find that kind of kindness – too often it seems to be people like Megan and society in general who suffer from them. Perhaps the ultimate blame is on a society that, I sometimes think, breeds and in many ways supports people who are “compassion deficit”.
Megan, know that your sensitivity, and your magnificent artistic gifts, are a gift to the world. People like this will turn up, but don’t let them have too much of you. What you have to give is too important.
Your compliment, coming from another artist, will thrill Megan, Lauren.
I still don’t think she should have paid anything at all. It makes very little sense to me that she is being penalized for having someone run into her dog! But I’m glad it’s behind her. Thanks for letting me know what happened.
We’re glad it’s over, too!
The insight into the character of that man… scary things is, there are so many of them around. Megan will find the answer once her mind has digested it, don’t we find answers when we least expect them? I’ve had things suddenly make sense after a period of years…
Answers…yes, they do seem to come when you least expect them!