Liz, it sounds very similar to the day that Ripley slipped out of his collar while we were on a walk. Your young boy was your hero today and that day a man in a white SUV was my hero. He was driving by and stopped because I must have looked like I was about to die from exhaustion! He called Ripley and Ripley ran right to me (the lesser of two evils in Ripley's eyes?! LOL!)

Anyway, I learned two lessons also. 1) To use a harness on my boy in the future - no more collars.
2) I am just as out of shape as you are!