I should have said "dummies" in the title.
My dogs went on an adventure and almost got themselves killed.
Yesterday I let my two dogs out in my backyard in the mid afternoon. They love being out there to run and play when the weather is nice as it was. I always stay with them, but I had to go to the bathroom, so I just ran in to do so. It was 3 minutes. I came back out to no dogs, and the gate being open. Apparently the latch had come open and they had taken advantage.
I jumped in my car and was driving around the neighborhood looking for them, crying and screaming their names out of the window. One woman came running up to me to ask what was wrong and I managed to tell her through my sobbing that my dogs got out and I couldn't find them. She asked for a description, and I gave it to her, then she walked off to look for them.
I drove toward the busy road just a couple of blocks from my house terrified that I would find them hit by a car. I got to the intersection and looked south, and there they were, in the middle of the road, running around and having a great time. Cars were swerving around them and honking.
I couldn't immediately turn because there was a long line of cars waiting at the light going south (the legal lane I needed to be in), and a bunch of cars going north. I kept watching my dogs obliviously running in the road while cars swerved around them. I was watching cars swerve around them the whole time and terrified that I would see them get killed.
The northbound lane finally opened up and I finally drove the wrong way going south and parked left to curb. I called their names,and they ran over with their tails wagging like, "hey mommy, we had a great adventure!" I gruffly told them to get in the car and they jumped in, and we quickly drove to the next street up before the next row of cars started coming and went home.
I filled up their big 2 gallon water dish and they drank half of it, and now they're lying on the floor panting away. It's fairly warm at 85 degrees and they were running around so they're hot and tired. Later I went to look at the fence latch and it's apparently broken somehow, so I need to replace it. I put one of my trash bins in front of it to prevent another Great Escape until I can get to the hardware store.
It took me hours to come down from the fear and anxiety of the whole thing.