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The In laws are visiting, with the dog they’re sitting for, and after a lovely lunch and obligatory cup of tea Bumpa decided to take the older boys to the park. Jolly heard, and wanted to go to, so he grabbed his shoes and ran to catch up. Pink is happily charging around the garden with the dog, C and his Mum are upstairs looking at some of his recent work. I go in to the kitchen to clear up and make another pot of tea – and after about 5 minutes I realise I can’t hear Pink. Step outside and call her, but there’s no answering “ye-e-es” warble like usual. And no dog.

Heart sinking a little I head to the garden gate, and sure enough see it wide open – bloody Jolly in his rush to catch up.

Keeping a lid on the stomach flipping, I head straight to the park, presuming she has followed Bumpa there (only 100yards, and not a real road, just back-of-houses access through some garages).

But she’s not there.

Heart double flips, panic starts to spin around my brain and I start calling her.

Don’t know where to look first.

Am in barefeet.. Back to the house for shoes and reinforcements? Not waste the time?

Calling and running I do a quick scout round, and realise between shouts that I can hear her crying faintly. Then the dog rushes past me, VERY proud of itself. I ignore the dog and try and figure out where the crying is.

Finally I track it to a garden, which is also home to a jack russell… Clearly our visitor dog thought it would make the neighbourhood rounds, and Pink followed cheerfully.

The crying gets louder, and I catch sight of her right at the far end of the neighbours garden (said neighbour is ba-a-ad, and horrid and I hope very much I don’t get caught in there…). I stand at the gate and call her, but she whimpers and won’t move and appears to be stuck. Am so bloody relieved to find her that the legs are shaking and it’s an effort to move, but I shove myself forward and reach the bottom of the garden – to find her standing in a pond. She has fallen in and got her wellies caught (thank god) in a pot, so she’s hip deep in water on one leg with second leg half-in-half-out.
In a pond.
In a frickin POND.

Physically shaking and alternately muttering angry curses at her and soothing her with kisses and sobs of relief I carried her back to the house.

I would never ever ever EVER have found her if she hadn’t been crying loudly.

She was missing less than 5 minutes, and it only took me about 2 to find her, but bloody hell.

IN A POND!

She’s starting to frighten me now. All these near misses… One day I’m going to be 2 minutes too late.

Bloody girl.

I think I already earned the years top prize.
Sigh.
So, we had the police call last night, checking up on us.
It was last-game-in-the-garden-before-bed with the boys, No.1 had gone indoors already and I thought Pink had wandered into the house with him. After about 5 minutes C came out asking where she was (bearing in mind she has broken out of the back garden when No.1 left the gate open – she has radar for quick exits, has made us neurotic). I casually said she was back inside with No.1 – who followed out after C and said ‘no, she’s not!’.

As it was nearly bedtime, knowing the garden gate was shut, I went upstairs, not worried, presuming she had got tired and gone and found a nice bed to be comfy in.

Nothing.

C and the boys were checking the garden and downstairs (she NEVER replies when you call her, which makes it hard). C double checked the side gate (which is ALWAYS fastened).

It was open.
Shouting out to me, C tore off down the road calling – this is the busy main road out front, always full of cars driving too fast…
Next door but two neighbour came out as he passed and said “are you missing a little girl?”.

They had picked her up on the opposite corner – she had managed to travel about 600 yards, and cross the road on a blind bend.

She’s not 18mths old yet.

The neighbours had already called the police, as they didn’t know who she belonged to. So 20 minutes later, once she had been half-suffocated with hugs, I was getting her to bed, and the police showed up – they had to attend and make sure she was ours and safe.

(Thinking about it, we think we had a delivery last Friday, and because we weren’t in he came round the side. The gate doesn’t actually swing open, it’s jammed firmly between house and fence, completely un-move-able by children. Whoever the idiot driver was moved it, left the parcel, and NEVER THOUGHT TO REPLACE THE GATE. We, of course, didn’t check it because we simply never have to.)

Oh, and putting No.1 to bed last night, it transpires I didn’t add suncream since 9 in the morning before Cricket. Sunburnt shoulders, chest, back and cheeks.

Add those two to the fact that Jolly is on report at school for his bad behaviour, the fact that I was sponging and tumbling 3 school jumpers every morning last week because I kept forgetting to put them in the machine before I went to bed, Jolly’s hair is so long it’s in his eyes like an old english sheepdog…

sigh. Neglected my children are. Neglected.

I’ve been a crap careless mother, and nearly lost my daughter because of it.

(Not to mention the burnt son…)