u/kittmittons

I feel so heartbroken and so guilty. I was taking him up to the lake house with some friends when someone hit us in the car. Before I could leash him my friend opened the door and helped him out when he bolted. He ran up the ramp towards the highway and I chased him as long as I could before he disappeared. We searched the surrounding woods and area all day and posted him everywhere. Strangers joined in looking for him, the police used an infrared drone but since it was the afternoon it was too hot to see anything on it. We made the decision to go home (about 30 minutes away) and wait for a call, then decided to go back with a man who had a drone. On the way there I got word that there had been sightings of him on the highway, right where we had been looking and that state police were heading over to try and wrangle him, and I felt so hopeful and excited. I called the police back to ask what we should be doing, and as he told me they found him dead we saw the police lights and my pup on the ground. So much went wrong yesterday and my beautiful puppy is gone. He was seven months old but we barely had him for two months. Everyone loved him so much and I was looking forward to having him for a long time, I feel so exhausted, broken, ashamed, and traumatized. I lost my senior dog last summer and we were finally ready to have a new family member in April, he gave us so much hope and happiness in his short stay. If anyone has lost a puppy, had a dog run away or be hit by a car, please tell me how you deal with the guilt. I feel like a failure, a bad owner, and a bad person right now.