Day 33

Yesterday the storm was beating with wind and rain torrents. It was three o’clock and I missed Minnie doing her dinner dance. I looked everywhere in the house and went outside. The side gate was open. Not in Chris’ yard, so I went to John’s yard. There she was soaked and muddy huddled up by the fence between our yards. She leaped into my arms, shivering and cold. Minnie was subdued for the rest of the day.

PS

I went through the same emotions with Minnie’s misadventure that I did many years ago when my two year old daughter wandered away in a camp ground when I turned my back for a minute to fill a pail with water from a pump. That awful empty space where the child was supposed to be can still freeze my blood. After the initial panic and yelling for her, people came from other campsites to join in the search. She had wandered several yards into the forest and was calmly walking along picking up pine cones and tunelessly singing her version of This Old Man. After the incredible relief came the self-recriminations. How could I let my baby go off by herself. I could not let her out of my sight for the rest of the campout.