Blood on My Hands...or Rather on My Tires

A horrible experience occurred today.  Tragedy for a raccoon family.  Lauren and I were headed out to see Oak Alley Plantation today.  We had just gotten off I-10 and were driving down a 4 lane highway.  I was in the far right hand lane with no other traffic around, other than a car far, far behind me.  A mother raccoon and two babies begin to cross the road up ahead and were in my lane.    I began to move over into the other lane, thinking the mother would be frightened by the traffic and retreat.  However she did not do that.  She continued onward with her darlings following her.  I tried, I really tried, to avoid them but in the end I hit the mother.  I know!  Horrible!  As I looked in my rear view mirror I saw the babies turn around and run back into the grass.  Momma was laying in the road with her feet wiggling in the air.  OMG!  What do I do now?  Do I collect the babies and raise them as a surrogate mother?  Do I put her out of her misery? Help ! What is the right answer?  We kept on going. That's what we did.  Then I called Lester and told him what happened and he called me a raccoon killer.  How horrible!  Like I didn't feel bad enough already!  Now I am in New Orleans and hiding from the animal police  because I am afraid they are looking for the person who failed to stop and render aid to an injured animal.  Or for the person responsible for orphaning those sweet little raccoon babies.  Now all I can do is hope that the papa raccoon will step up and help those little guys and that they can forgive me for my actions against their mother.  It was truly an accident.  Pray for my soul everyone.