Smiley, It's so scary when they get loose. So glad your dogs were all right.
No one's perfect. It's so eaasy to forget something or leave them alone long enough for something scary to happen. We just went through a similar situation this weekend. Again, our fault, We know better than to take our eyes off Dr. Seuss when he is outside on his leash. He broke his brand new leash and took off with his harness on, trailing several feet of leash behind him and was already gone by the time we looked back. He was missing for almost two days. I was panicked with visions of him getting stuck somewhere and not being able to get free. Then Sunday night he calmly strolls through the door demanding food five minutes before a massive thunderstorm