Sphere with Lion's Head Hatch lands - I'm swtiched off and lose time.

I had this experience back when I was a little girl of 8 or 9.  I went with the family next door to a lake just north of Toronto for a day of swimming.  The family consisted of a Mother, Father and two daughters.  I remember the car was a "Duster". The incident happened on the way home.  There was some discussion between the parents whether or not to look for the object they had seen.  (I think one wanted to and the other did not.  Us kids really weren't paying attention yet.) We found the "ship" on the front yard to a farmhouse.  It had, I believe, 4 legs that were quite long (2 or 3 metres) with a sphere on top.  It was grey/metallic in colour.  The door/hatch was in the shape of (what looked like to me) a lions head. I saw the hatch start to open and the family start to get out.  The next thing I knew we were driving down the highway, singing to the radio as if nothing had happened. I always used to think of this a "my encounter".  But since learning more about the phenomena of ufos (through programs such as Jeff Rense and reading Missing Time by Budd Hopkins) I now suspect that a member of the family I was with was/is an abductee and that I was simply "switched off".  I don't know how much time is missing -- I was just a kid -- but it seemed to me at least an hour or two darker after the encounter than just before.
Date is approximate.  PD