Talk about utter terror and complete panic.
It was horrible—I had just started feeding Owen and wondered where Maggie was, then remembered I had let her out so I opened the door and called her and she wasn’t there. So I ran outside and the fence door was open (from when Owen and I were out walking Sunday)! I hadn’t even thought about it, since Maggie had been out multiple times since then with no issues.
So, realizing what happened, I freak out because she does not wear a collar (although she is chipped, but that doesn’t help much if someone finds her) and she’s probably been gone about 15 minutes. So I ran out the front door and yelled for her. I ran a few houses up the street (leaving Owen in the high chair) and when she didn’t appear, I knew I had to go on the hunt.
I had to rush to get Owen cleaned up, out of the high chair, into his hat/coat/mittens, find shoes for me (I skipped shoes for him), find Maggie’s harness and leash (which seemed to take forever), get Owen in the stroller…then call Tom to say COME HOME (he didn’t answer so I had to leave a message!). Ugh.
All I could think of was that it was my fault the door was open. 🙁
After a trip up and down the street yelling for her, it hit me that she was probably at the park—with lots of people, dogs, and squirrels. As soon as I got there I saw her about 50 yards away playing with another dog, and when she saw me, she came running. Owen saw her and started laughing.
As I was putting her harness and leash on, the guy came up to me with his dog and asked if she was mine, and I said yes, she got out of the fence. He told me that some other woman had called Animal Control because Maggie looked like “she had been out awhile and her eyes looked bad.”
🙄
She’d been out less than 20 minutes and her head was covered in dog slobber from playing with the guy’s huge slobbery dog.
But she’s home now.