It was late afternoon, already dark.

Sharon Falk was driving home after picking up some paint on the South Hill.

Near the busy intersection of 29th Avenue and Manito Boulevard, cars just ahead of her swerved.

She saw a downed animal in the road.

“I drove one block and decided I just couldn’t leave someone’s pet there,” she said.

By the time she doubled back to the scene, a young man had moved a small, brown dog out of the street. It now rested on some snow.

“I hit it,” he said softly. “I couldn’t stop.”

Falk guessed the fellow was in his 20s. He was wearing pajama pants and shivering.

Another woman was there as well. Gently stroking the pet and speaking to it in soothing tones, the three of them checked the dog for signs of life. No luck.

Falk went up to the nearest home. The person she spoke to knew nothing about the dog.

But it had a collar with a number. And when Falk got back to where the young guy stood, he was on the phone with animal control authorities in the hopes of tracking down the owner.

It was a sad situation. No doubt about it. But Falk found her spirits lifted just a little bit by the sight of that remorseful motorist in pajamas.

He could have kept driving. Certainly he wasn’t to blame for what happened.

But he made another choice.

Strangers in Spokane. Sometimes they do the right thing.

Fermenting curiosity: “My wife and I received some friendship bread which takes some work to keep going,” wrote Justin Crigger. “We are wondering who in this area has kept a batch of it going the longest or who just threw it away when they received it.”

You know you’re getting old when … : Someone doesn’t get your reference to Gary’s Olde Towne Tavern.

It turns out not everyone has encyclopedic recall of “Cheers” episodes.

Today’s Slice question: Is there someone in your household who, at this time of year, refers to all sorts of rather ordinary events as Christmas miracles?