24. Out of Sight, Out of Mind
I was probably four years old in the dead of winter at my super rural childhood home. My dog, a large German shepherd, wandered off and I trusted him enough to follow him. My mom didn’t see me leave the yard, I think she was cooking or something. That day I learned an important lesson: do not bank on your dog being a good hiking guide.
Once we got well out of sight, he stopped being in leader mode and went into protect mode. He just stuck with me and wouldn’t take me out of the woods. I was too young to know to follow my footprints back or anything, and it was dangerously cold. I don’t know how much time had passed but my mom ended up calling emergency services. Cops and firefighters came out looking for me, and my dog almost mauled a cop that got too close to me.
It wasn’t scary at the time, but looking back, I could have easily died in those woods.