epic parenting fail

For the sake of posterity I am writing down this tragic story as a record of our most epic parenting fail to date.  You might laugh...we did some screaming and wanted to cry!

Pet sitting:
Upon arriving to Mexico this year, we had the assignment of pet sitting for Xena and Harry (Grandma Kelley's dog and canary) for 5 days. Due to our delayed and cancelled flight, we were already arriving 24 hours late and the poor pets had been mostly faring for themselves.  Once we got there all was well and we settled into relaxing vacation mode.  The boys loved caring for the pets and especially loved Harry.  They helped change his water and food and clean his cage.  They visited with him on the back porch all day long. He sang and sang.  Xena got her first few doses of a new prescription that we had brought down to help curb her seizures.  She was feeling like a very peppy puppy with the help of phenobarbital (which was a scary drug to give her...um, hello Michael Jackson and Whitney Huston over dose drug!).  All was smooth sailing till Saturday evening.  When all. heck. broke. loose.
The boys suddenly came screaming into the house.  "Harry, Harry, Harry is gone!  He flew out!  He is gone!"  That's right.  My worst nightmare.  One that hadn't even occurred to me.  My children let the bird out of his cage and away he flew.  I have no idea why they did this, we thought they understood the rules.  I know it wasn't intentional or malicious, but it was a massive mistake.  Matt and I came unglued.  It was pretty comical really, we were demanding answers and yelling like a shameful mess.  Matt was yelling at the boys "You KILLED Harry!  He is out there alone in the Mexican wilderness!"  First they blamed each other, then they both admitted guilt, then the tears came streaming down their faces.  There were long time outs and apology letters written and prayers of forgiveness said on their knees.  It was ridiculous.  I had to track down Grandma Kelley in California and deliver the news.  I sent texts to my brothers and sisters in law telling them to rest assured because our kids had just committed the worst grandkid sin in the history of time and their future children could never possibly top it.  It was awful.  And then I prayed.  I prayed fervently for the next 20 hours that I could successfully deliver Xena in one piece back to my mother in law the next afternoon.  Not on my watch, Xena, not on my watch!!

Postscript:
Thankfully Xena is still alive and well and I have a very gracious and forgiving mother in law.  Whew.