Lost Dog!

MFM was in a hurry yesterday morning. I could hear her thinking out loud and it was exciting! She planned to let me out without my leash - just for a second - "Just long enough to do your business." Sure, I figured I could handle that. (I have assimilated and learned some Texas Talk - "figure" is a verb.)
We stepped out the back door and I only half listened to MFM chatting about something. We walked over to "The Spot" and I froze in place. MFM was still quietly chatting until she noticed I was just standing there still as statue. She looked over to see what was catching my attention and we all froze. Standing just out of arm's reach were 5 deer watching us watch them. Nothing moved and there were no sounds.
About 30 seconds of this was all I could take, so I made a slight move to go about my business. Well, you would have thought I had pushed the fruit-basket-turn-over button. My slight movement spooked the deer and I followed my immediate instinct to chase after them. I could hear my MFM clapping and calling, too stunned to whistle, but I couldn't stop. I don't recall ever having so much fun!
Later, I learned that MFM had hurried back in to get the leash then knocked on her neighbor's door to enlist aid. MFM questioned two people from the neighborhood who were out for a stroll.
"Did you see a black & white dog fly past, chasing deer?" she asked.
"We saw spooked deer, but no dog," one man answered.
I had been in the neighborhood less than a week and already I had gotten loose and gotten lost. MFM was worried I wouldn't be able to find my way home or, horrors!, be hit by a car.
"Don't worry," the man said, obviously operating from a voice of experience, "he knows where the dinner bowl is."
Good neighbor that she is, Patti volunteered to help look. It was really a funny sight - both of them scurrying around in the Green Belt, clapping and calling. The deer interrupted in their grazing, had perplexed looks. There was no dog to be seen.
MFM finally decided to get the car and drive around the area looking for one sad, lonely, frightened dog. She gathered her things and prepared to leave but stopped to take one more look in the back yard. You guessed it! I was waiting, impatiently, by the back door. I knew where the food bowl was.
Since then, MFM has been really careful about keeping my leash on me any time we step out the door. It brings me up short some times when I try to take off running without thinking, but I know I am loved.