To start with I would like to say on Aug. 3 my family lost my loving 19 year-old grandson to a motorcycle accident. Well today not 50 feet from my yard we lost our wonderful dog of nine-and-a-half years named "Bella." We had company and were busy talking. Somehow, she slipped out the back door and got to the street. First of all I would like to say our home has been in my husband’s family for almost 100 years and he was raised here in Breezy Point and is now 68. Well for many years dogs and cats walked around the neighborhood without causing a problem to anyone in the community. Calvert County now has a leash law which we have tried very hard to honor. If Bella was in the front yard she had a heavy chain on her to keep her out of the street. We also have a 25-mile-an-hour speed limit. But for the past school years I have complained to many people about the speedy cars and the school buses that whiz by our house. Today we lost our loving dog because a school bus driver, who was in such a big hurry to dump her kids off, whizzed by my house, came to a stop at the house next door, unloaded the children and took off. The problem is when she took off in her big hurry she ran over my dog’s head. Now I am aware that accidents happen but how can you not feel hitting a dog the size of a retriever that is bright white and weighs 95 pounds? She went down the street to turn around and started to leave the street but she had to stop because my husband, who is blind in one eye, losing sight in the other and is deaf; was standing in her way to get out of Breezy Point in the street picking up his loyal watch dog, his protector and his guide dog off the road with her head in pieces. This dog used to nudge my husband if anyone came into the house or warned him if a car was coming or something was wrong. And this speedy bus driver was trying to get out of Breezy Point before the dog owners showed up. What if this was a child?  Aren't bus drivers supposed to pull away from a bus stop slowly, making sure everything is ok before they pull off? Aren't they supposed to be able to tell when their bus hits something that weighs 95 pounds? I hit a rabbit and felt it in my SUV. The man across the street is always yelling “slow down.  What is it going to take to slow school bus drivers, cars and trash trucks down? Our lives changed with the loss of my grandson and my husband’s world was crushed when he lost his loving, gentle, dog. We accept the fact she got loose for a period of maybe three minutes.  But the death of this four legged hearing aid called Bella, we hold on the lack of compassion and respect of her job on this bus driver. She couldn't get off our street fast enough without ever taking the time to help. Our dog was our baby and so much a part of our every being. You took this away from us.

The following letter was e-mailed to The Bay Net this weekend.