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Tom says:
I saw a dog I had never seen before running about in the street on its own.
Pete replies:
a. Maybe one of your neighbors bought a new dog that escaped.
b. One of your neighbors might have bought a new dog that escaped.
c. One of your neighbors might have bought a new dog and it escaped.
d. One of your neighbors might have bought a new dog and it might have escaped.
Which of the above sentences are grammatically correct and acceptable in this context?
The repetition of might in example D is 'unusual' at best. Normally, for someone to say that, I would assume that they didn't believe that this was the correct explanation.
The lack of punctuation in both example A and B, makes them a little ambiguous, but is common enough in spoken language - they could be read as your neighbour buying a dog AFTER it had escaped.
My choice would be a slight adjustment to example C - One of your neighbours might have bought a new dog, and it's escaped.
