Dog leaning out of a car window is cool... until you suddenly brake in the "sharrow" lane

Our spotter saw you driving in Mount Baker around 11:40 am today. The left rear window was cranked down. And we saw your dark, middle-sized dog leaning halfway out of the vehicle as you proceeded northbound on 38th Avenue South. (The small frou-frou pooch at the right used for illustration purposes only. But shame on that driver.)

What the hell were you thinking?

One sudden stop in the "sharrow" lane, and your canine would finish a distant second in the Gravity v. Dog contest.

Last year, several of us at the dog park watched as a large, wanna-be monster truck cruised down Genesee. We saw a small object hurtle out of the passenger car window and onto the pavement.

The falling object was a Chihuahua. The truck stopped, and a woman exited the vehicle. Seeing no visible injuries (it's hard for one not trained in medicine to detect internal injuries or concussion), the woman nonchalantly picked up the dog, climbed back in the truck that proceeded down Genesee.

A friend driving down Denny a year ago saw a thirtysomething driving an old Land Rover -- probably with a Sierra Club bumper sticker, so hip and ironic. The back window of the window was rolled halfway down. The woman was so busy listening to her indie tunes that she didn't notice that her lab was halfway out of the car. Caught in the window -- for better or worse -- he couldn't make his complete escape from the vehicle traveling at more than 30 miles per hour.

It's one thing to crack the window open to and let your dog sniff the fresh air. It's another thing to jeopardize your dog's safety by leaving a large enough opening that would allow your dog to fall or jump out of a vehicle. Your Rottweiler wouldn't like road rash any more than you.