Today, the monkey and I had just gotten back from doing a little bit of shopping. It’s been a really good day and he’s just been behaving amazing. He’s been happy, smiling, and just very calm. I normally don’t take him shopping with me by myself, but he was doing so good that we ventured out.

I had just gotten home and was on the phone with my husband letting him know that we were here. I unbuckled the monkey from the backseat, and like I always do, I asked him to make sure he closes the door of the vehicle. As we’re walking towards our front door, I pull out my keys to unlock our front door, my husband comes over and opens the door for me from inside.

As I look behiny me to see where the monkey is, and I cannot find him. I start screaming like crazy his name. He’s nowhere to be found. As I look down our street, I see him running. I drop everything my purse, my phone, my keys, my grocery bags, and I run towards him. My fear was if a car is coming up our cul-de-sac, they would probably not see the monkey. As I’m running down the street, screaming his name, I can hear my husband running behind me, screaming his name as well. We knew where he was going. He loves to go to the arroyo. He loves to see our mountains from that view.

My husband eventually caught up to him.

What worries me is how do you explain the concept of danger to him? How can I make him understand that running down the street towards oncoming traffic is unsafe. He was gone in an instant. Less than a minute and he was already down the street. We’ve tried talking to him, showing him picture stories, videos, but he can’t grasp the danger concept.

Today could have turned much worse.

And that’s my biggest worry. 😥