A mistake discovered - what to do if you find a hole

So I was knitting along on a sweater the other night - the one in which I'm in a race with two other friends to finish (The first one done gets a prize from the other two) - and I notice that I seem to have created a gap between stitches. At first, I wanted to believe that it was just a normal space caused by uneven stithces. Afterall, I'm in a race and I was in the middle of the collar, which is 238 stitches.

This has happened to me before only I didn't have enough experience then to realize that something was wrong. First, I checked for a dropped stitch, which of course would have been easy to fix. Alas, there was none. I thought about keeping on and figuring out later, but I know from experience that's never a good idea. So I pondered. The hole looked vaguely familiar - like something achieved during making short rows. Then it dawned on me. There was a reason why when I had gotten to the end of the previous row that I felt like I was on the wrong side - because I was. As I was knitting that row, the puppy did what puppies shouldn't do in the house so I promptly dropped the work and took care of her business. Then I plopped back down and a little too carelessly picked up my work and took off, only I'd taken off in the wrong direction! I didn't pay close enough attention and turned the work in the middle of the row, just like you would for a short row only I didn't want one at this point. There is only one way to fix this - tinking back to where the work was turned. I didn't actually time it, but I'm fairly certain that it takes three or four times longer to tink than to knit. I was relieved, at least to discover that I had correctly diagnosed the problem.

I'm sharing this story not only to brag a little but also as a warning/guide for my fellow knitters who have to stop in the middle of the row or who find an unexpected gap.

Here is the aforementioned puppy - doesn't she look so innocent?