escape artist. ................. 0 8 / 1 9 / 2 0 0 1
I have really been meaning to put some words in here about Foley, but for some reason, I haven't been able to come up with any decent ones. He's the best-mannered of our two dogs. He never really gets in much trouble. About the worst thing he does is to bury my socks outside, which is endearing in a strangely doggy way. I imagine he will be the subject of another gruntle eventually. He's sweet and cheerful and just plain glad to see you, unfailingly, every day. Some day, sweetheart, some day.

But what got me going tonight was Hannah, again. Part Husky, part German Shephard, and part termite, she's taken to escape lately. This was an issue when we first got her; she seemed to have very bad separation anxiety, sometimes even crying when we left her alone. But then we got Foley, and she seemed fine for a long time. So it was a big surprise when, about three weeks ago, she started up again. Helen was out running errands, and I was at work. When Helen came home, Hannah greeted her cheerfully in the front yard, where a dog most certainly should not have been.

Helen, having had to catch Bad Dog before, parked the car across the street, engine running. Slowly she walked up to Hannah, expecting Speedy to make a break for it in either direction. To everyone's surprise (mine and Helen's, at least), she trotted up to Helen with a "where've you been all this time?" look on her face. Helen, knowing about gift horses, took the dog by the collar, turned off the car, and took Hannah in the house. After scouting for fresh exit paths, she quickly determined that the Bad Dog got out via the bay window. The bay window, it turns out, has screens that can be easily popped out by a determined dog. Now, the way she chose to exit leads directly on top of a rosebush. (Fur or no fur, that's gotta hurt.) But, the outside world has little water for a thirsty dog, so Hannah hightailed it for the water bowl.

So now there's a baby gate. In the bay window. The neighbors across the street are renters, and their yard looks like shite. So there's nothing to look at, really. But still.

And then she disappeared into our neighbor Dennis's yard. The first time was two weeks ago, when a not-quite-dead-yet stump tree pried loose enough fence boards to let her through (with some generous help from a determined canine). The second time was tonight, when she chewed a six-inch hole through the fence.

What does she think this is, Stalag 13?

If she gets any more ambitious, she's gonna have to get a contractor's license.

Coda: Hannah broke through yet another fence segment today. The fence is ten years old, sure, but it's not like it's got dry rot all over the place.

What are we going to do with this dog?

more gruntles rlm@scareduck.com
Last modified: Tue Aug 21 00:25:11 PDT 2001