How Did Gollum Lose the Ring?

[Boo Radley]

Well, obviously we all know how he lost the ring, but what I'm asking is how could he have ever been so careless as to LOSE THE PRECIOUS??!!!
I'm surprised he wasn't aware of it's location every waking moment. You would think that as he was completely obsessed with it, he'd be touching it at every opportunity just to reassure himself it was where he expected it to be.
And I know that the time had come (Or almost come) for the Ring to "be found", as it were, so do you think there's a possibility that the ring could have... I don't know... clouded Gollum's mind somehow? Whispered to him and given him a false sense of security, so that perhaps he wasn't constantly touching it and reassuring himself as to it's proximity?

Or, going the other direction, do you think that as Gollum had been alone for so long and the Ring had become so much a part of his life/personality/what-have-you, that he... didn't necessarily take it for granted, understand, but rather couldn't conceive of it being anywhere else than where he kept it, and so the need to constantly check it and make sure it was safe, wasn't really a factor.

I sort of lean towards option B, myself.