Ack! That has to have been very frightening! I had one bad experience with Tasha once that gave me enough scare to turn my hair gray early!

It wasn't too long after we first moved into this house, and we didn't have Tommy yet, just Willie and Tasha. It was sort of a rainy fall day, and I was helping Willie up the deck steps since his arthritis was really bothering him then. I turned around, and Tasha was GONE! The yard isn't fenced, and it's a large lot (nearly an acre). We didn't have the underground fencing yet. Tasha had never wandered from the yard before, always stayed fairly close to me, but I'm guessing she saw a rabbit or something that she chased.

Well I started calling her, still not TOO worried yet as she had never ever strayed far from me. Nothing.. nothing.. I started getting worried. Checked the neighboring yards, no sign of her. I can't tell you the sinking terrifying feeling that came over me then. It must have been like how you felt Pam when you saw the gate open.

After about 15 minutes I was a wreck. I was weeping and crying her name over and over and in the neighbor's yards and out in the road, and then calling my husband trying to get ahold of him at work... When suddenly there she was, racing towards me at top speed, sopping wet and muddy-footed. Relieved is way too much of an understatement. I got her in the house and was just shaking and holding her, not caring about getting my clothes wet/muddy at all. I swear my nerves were totally shot.

Thank God it has never happened again. Last summer we put in the underground fencing, but even without that she has never strayed again.