I listened to this podcast this afternoon whilst I was crocheting. Yes she does make some important points. It reminded me of the time we ‘lost’ Sky - she went missing for 12 hours and that was an horrendous experience (2nd to when I lost my 9 year old son in the National Gallery in London - that particular incident was the point my hair started going grey! I did find him ?)
Sky disappeared into a rapeseed field on her evening walk. We called her and called her but she didn’t come. The rapeseed was at it’s most densest and tallest so there was no way we could get in the field which is huge. It started to get dark - we went back for our big torches. Again called her and called her. In the end DH said we had to go home and we’d go back at first light. I was beside myself. Went home distraught. By now it was raining hard. The next morning, we got up at dawn. DH went downstairs first and opened the little curtain over the window at the bottom of the stairs. He could see Sky. She was absolutely saturated, very frightened but she had found her way home (crossing a road that sometimes is very busy and through other roads to get to ours). I remember shouting at her ‘Don’t you ever dare do that again’ as if she was a naughty teenager and flinging my arms around her crying. It was a traumatic experience which you never forget. Yes the temptation to not let her off lead again was great but we decided it would be so unfair. If I am honest, it did affect me a lot. The thought that I could lose her in those circumstances is horrible but it’s a risk that has to be made.
