{"id":5106,"date":"2013-05-21T06:00:13","date_gmt":"2013-05-21T10:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.allandouglas.com\/blog\/?p=5106"},"modified":"2025-04-21T01:56:40","modified_gmt":"2025-04-21T05:56:40","slug":"making-a-break-for-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/making-a-break-for-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Making a Break For It (again)"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Blondie,<\/a>
My “baby girl” Blondie<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We have had a real problem with Blondie exploiting any weakness she finds in a fence and making a break for the wild woods.\u00a0 As a result I have taken to tethering her in the shop yard or locking her inside the shop if I have to step away for a\u00a0bit\u00a0\u2013 like to go get the mail or do some gardening.\u00a0 After her last escape I spent a morning tightening up the fencing, bolstering posts, and sealing up the lower edges where she (or something) had pulled up the pins that hold the fence to the ground.\u00a0 I eliminated all the potential escape routes I could find.\u00a0 But she is strong as a bear, and it constantly surprises me what she’s capable of.<\/p>\n

For the past two days I\u2019ve let her run loose in the shop yard because I was out there with her, WATCHING.\u00a0 I made a point of scolding her if I caught her casing the fence line, and praising her when she was just wandering around or resting and being good.<\/p>\n

This afternoon Cochise decided to stay home after lunch (rain is coming, hes a wimp regarding rain) and he can be trusted on his own in the house.\u00a0 He’s a very good boy.\u00a0 Blondie and I came back to the shop and were inside.\u00a0 Cochise started making a fuss from the living room window so Blondie and I went out to the gate to see what was going on.\u00a0 There are trees in front of all the shop windows for shade so I can\u2019t see much from in here.\u00a0 The little white furball dog from across the road was out pissing on my garden, so I ran down to chase it away.\u00a0 This took no more than TWO MINUTES\u00a0\u2013 seriously\u00a0\u2013 but when I got back Blondie was nowhere to be found.\u00a0 She had found a new way out: by RIPPING a panel down that had been stapled across an opening formerly occupied by a gate.<\/p>\n

I have since re-stapled it, but I\u2019ll have to cut wood battens to nail over the top of the staples: MAYBE that would hold her.\u00a0 The fencing itself has a 600\u00a0LB tensile strength, but she has managed to tear it with her claws.\u00a0 And \u201ccritters\u201d have been chewing holes in it here and up at the play yard.\u00a0 I\u2019ve mended the holes by cutting patches of fencing and wiring them over the holes… and they chew through the patches!<\/p>\n

Back to my story.\u00a0 So I armed myself with a dog cookie and a leash and went out in search of Blondie.<\/p>\n

I looked high (up in the woods) and I looked low (down along the road).\u00a0 Finally I caught sight of a Blondie butt disappearing over\u00a0a hill in The Judge\u2019s driveway headed toward his house. I called her, she ran.\u00a0 I walked faster (can\u2019t run anymore or I pass out), she disappeared.\u00a0 She must have darted off into the woods that line both sides of his 1\/2 mile long (or more) driveway.<\/p>\n

Cochise started making a fuss. Maybe she had gone back home; I should turn back and go look.\u00a0 No, I\u2019m almost to his house, I should go on and be sure.\u00a0 They have a big brown dog that seems to fascinate her.\u00a0 Besides, if she went home, she\u2019d probably run off again before I got there.\u00a0 I rounded the last bend and did not see her.\u00a0 I turned around and she came trotting out of the woods back the way I\u2019d come.\u00a0I called her, she ran straight toward me; very gratifying\u2026 until she zipped right past and headed up to the Judge\u2019s house!\u00a0 I\u2019m pretty sure she was chuckling.<\/p>\n

She led me on a merry\u00a0hour long\u00a0chase: POINTEDLY ignoring me the whole way.\u00a0 She\u2019d let me get almost close enough to grab her then bolt away again.\u00a0 Finally,\u00a0she forgot about her tail and I seized the opportunity.\u00a0 \u00a0 On the leash again I escorted her home.\u00a0 I did NOT give her the cookie she so pointedly ignored previously.<\/p>\n

She\u2019s alive and well\u00a0\u2013 though tired\u00a0\u2013 I\u2019m the dead one.\u00a0 Working on a bottle of Gatorade now.<\/p>\n

* * * * *<\/p>\n

\"Blondie\"<\/a>Addendum:<\/strong>\u00a0 Two days later we signed the papers and made it official \u2013 Blondie is now a permanent part of our family.\u00a0 Alicia installed her chip at the shelter \u2013 it\u2019s just a shame it\u2019s not like a cell phone where we could triangulate her location!\u00a0 I\u2019m sure she\u2019ll be making a break and going a-wandering as often as get gets the chance.\u00a0 It will be my job to eliminate those chances.<\/p>\n

Cochise went along to keep her company and see his good friend Alicia, who says she likes to follow along with his adventures on Facebook.\u00a0 He\u2019s always excited to go see his friends at The Newport Animal Shelter.<\/p>\n

Blondie will, no doubt, be our troubled teen who likes to run off but she’s a sweet gal most of the time, and we love her dearly.\u00a0 Even Cochise; in fact it was his idea that we keep her.\u00a0 Maybe, in time, she too will decide she likes it better here than out there and give up making a break for it every chance she gets.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We have had a real problem with Blondie exploiting any weakness she finds in a fence and making a break for the wild woods.  As a result I have taken to tethering her in the shop yard or locking her inside the shop if I have to step away for a bit – like to go get … Continue reading “Making a Break For It (again)”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[89,59],"class_list":["post-5106","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-life","tag-blondie","tag-dogs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5106","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5106"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5106\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21545,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5106\/revisions\/21545"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5106"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5106"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}