It’s a tragic story that’s served to bring Pacific Beach neighbors – and hopefully – their neighborhood, together.
Letty Oudone on Aug. 4 had let her dog out for a potty break in her driveway before work about 5:30 a.m. According to nearby neighbor Brooke Adams, her longtime pooch Charley was struck and killed by a hit-and-run driver making a left onto Loring Street from Bayard Street.?”It is extremely dangerous with how fast cars go down Loring and with the parked cars blocking one’s vision, and there is a dark part of the street there due to no street light and trees,” noted Adams. “The person hit Charley and kept driving.”
Adams felt the car driver “didn’t even know they hit anything … and if they hit something, I don’t think they knew it was an animal.”
Another neighbor, Tracey Benson, saw a posting of the tragic incident on NextDoor.
“This story really touched me because I have animals too – and I know how I would feel if this happened to me,” Benson said. “Losing an animal due to illness or old age is so difficult as they are members of the family. To lose an animal so traumatically is even worse.”  
To memorialize Charley, Benson, an artist, painted his portrait, and gave it to Letty.
“It was amazing,” said Letty of her neighbor’s memorial pet portrait. “He (Charley) was my buddy for eight years, my partner, my soulmate, my best friend.”
Lamented Letty, “The driver went over the curb, hit him (dog), and left, never stopping,” while pointing out, “people come flying down Loring Street.”
Of her pet portrait, Benson noted, “I knew there was nothing I could do to get her (Letty’s) dog back. But I wanted her to have something to remember her dog. I feel so much empathy for her, and wanted her to know that others felt her loss too.”
“I would like to believe that people are still good in this world, so I’ll just keep on believing the person (car driver) didn’t know,” said Adams, of her reporting on Charley’s tragic death in NextDoor social media.
Noting the dog’s death made a lasting impression on her, Adams recalled, “She (Letty) was screaming, she literally picked Charley up (dead) and walked him home to where she lives leaving a blood trail all the way down the street. … I definitely thought the neighborhood needed to know about this tragedy and … I would want everyone walking by that spot to know that my dog was killed there.”
Of the incident’s aftermath, Adams added, “I definitely feel like we all helped her (Letty) heal more then if she was alone. Dogs are just as important as people. They are our family members too.” 
Artist Benson noted “the worst places I have found for walking dogs are those streets that cross Mission Boulevard. Even having those intersections marked for pedestrians with flashing lights and markings on the asphalt does not ensure that cars will stop when they see you crossing the street.  This is also true for crossing Garnet at the different streets that intersect with it. Both Mission Boulevard and Garnet are like freeways in the summer time.”  
“One never forgets their pets after they pass on,” concluded Adams. “The experience of having that animal lives on in your memory long after they are gone.”
Adams noted Letty recently “picked up her new rescue dog, Rocky, that she saved from being killed at a shelter. This new dog couldn’t be sweeter and I’m so happy for this outcome. Another animal can not replace them – but it is a chance to have a new experience with new memories.”