Hanging out at my friend's place in the backyard. He lives in a townhouse, so the yard is open length wise for every house, each having a half fence as a privacy partition. Diesel had gone inside to lay for a bit but wanted to come back out. He's been here before and knows his boundaries, though he's never off leash for long, really just what he was off leash for today -- hooking up the lead to a tree for him to hang out in the grass while we hang out on the patio portion as I never leave him on a tie out alone. Well, the little bugger saw something and just bolted. My friend said he saw what looked like a tail end of an animal, possibly a cat. I had thought that he was still near the houses before the break -- wide enough for a car, but the end of it has two great big pine trees kind of blocking that Diesel has never attempted to get past before.
So my friend said he'd go get him because I didn't have shoes on. I didn't realize he was at the break, and when they didn't immediately return and I heard his voice in front of the houses I panicked and followed. Seeing my friend standing on the road (inside the townhouse complex still) asking people "have you seen a black dog" holy crap did my heart ever sink to my feet as I tried to process... he's... gone??? I ran through the trees calling Diesel, looking every which way and not seeing a sign of him at all. Tears brewing in my eyes, my friend not getting any concrete answer "did you see a dog or not?" then I asked the one guy who'd already given a "duh..." response, "oh yeah, a black dog with a blue collar, yeah he went that way" and he was pointing to the parking lot part that is parallel to the actual road where teenagers are famous for doing 80km in a 40km zone. Jesus, please dear God, no. I tried not to have emotion in my voice, but omg was I ever terrified, called out to him in a panicked mama bear tone just as I cornered to the parking lot. And there was my baby boy, all proud of himself for being out on his own, for chasing whatever the hell it was, trotting back to me like "hi, mama!" and then I must have had the tone that parents get when their child scares the crap out of them, because his ears went back, low tip of the tail wag as he came closer with a big old "I's is sowwy mama please don't be mad"
Huge hug "don't you EVER EVER EVER do that again!" taken by the collar all the way back safely inside. Then the big ugly cry came. No matter how many times before he'd been off leash waiting to be hooked up... he's lost all privileges now. In 3 years he has never given me a "gone" scare before and I never want to have that fear again. Thanks to the Guardian Angel that must be up there somewhere.
So my friend said he'd go get him because I didn't have shoes on. I didn't realize he was at the break, and when they didn't immediately return and I heard his voice in front of the houses I panicked and followed. Seeing my friend standing on the road (inside the townhouse complex still) asking people "have you seen a black dog" holy crap did my heart ever sink to my feet as I tried to process... he's... gone??? I ran through the trees calling Diesel, looking every which way and not seeing a sign of him at all. Tears brewing in my eyes, my friend not getting any concrete answer "did you see a dog or not?" then I asked the one guy who'd already given a "duh..." response, "oh yeah, a black dog with a blue collar, yeah he went that way" and he was pointing to the parking lot part that is parallel to the actual road where teenagers are famous for doing 80km in a 40km zone. Jesus, please dear God, no. I tried not to have emotion in my voice, but omg was I ever terrified, called out to him in a panicked mama bear tone just as I cornered to the parking lot. And there was my baby boy, all proud of himself for being out on his own, for chasing whatever the hell it was, trotting back to me like "hi, mama!" and then I must have had the tone that parents get when their child scares the crap out of them, because his ears went back, low tip of the tail wag as he came closer with a big old "I's is sowwy mama please don't be mad"
Huge hug "don't you EVER EVER EVER do that again!" taken by the collar all the way back safely inside. Then the big ugly cry came. No matter how many times before he'd been off leash waiting to be hooked up... he's lost all privileges now. In 3 years he has never given me a "gone" scare before and I never want to have that fear again. Thanks to the Guardian Angel that must be up there somewhere.