Heart Like a Dog

The Good, the Bad, and the Oh My God of living with dogs!

The Dogs Got Out….I'm So Done

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Relax, it’s not my dogs.

I saw this on a friend’s facebook page.  In the comments she said she was thinking about adopting one of her dogs out.

Seems her two dogs are jumping the 6 foot fence to get to the Boxer next door, and this is ticking off the neighbors.

I went to her page and left a comment, oh and of course  I threw in a shameless promotion of this blog, by posting a link and asking her if she read it.

Later in the evening we had a facebook chat and I found out, the dogs don’t jump the fence when someone is outside with them.  Hmmm this means you would always have to be outside with your dogs, which in my opinion is counter-productive to having a fenced in yard.

She said she was the primary care-giver seeing she was home during the day, and she was frustrated.  It had been a bad day.  I told her I could relate to that and posted a link to my Defeated and Lost post.

I suggested tethering the dogs when she wasn’t able to be outside with them.  I also told her I would throw the problem out to my readers and see if any of you had any suggestions.

Last night when I signed on we chatted again.  She had spoken with her husband and they were going to invest in an electric fence.  Her husband has installed and used electric fences before.

I totally forgot about how we solved our problems last winter with Delilah going over our fence.

In the winter of 2010/2011 New England got smacked with gobs and gobs of snow.

We have a five-foot fence in our yard.  We got so much snow you could literally step over it in some spots.  We have a chocolate lab who did precisely that.

I tried tying her out, but stupidly gave her too much room and she went over the fence on her leash!

Hubby went out to Home Depot and bought some deer fencing and some sturdy sticks, then he used zip ties to secure the deer fencing along the top of our fence.  Basically he made our 5 foot fence about 7 1/2 feet high.

It looks like this:

Our ghetto fence.

Our ghetto fence.

I know it looks ghetto, but we are set far back from the road, it is only the back yard that is fenced in and it keeps my dogs safe.

I said I’d throw it out to you, so here it is.  Have you have an issue with your dogs going over your fence?  If so, how did you handle it?   How would you work with your dog to stop them from going over the fence?

Be The Change

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I’ve been thinking about this Be The Change For Animals post for a while.  I thought I had it all planned out in my head but now that I am sitting down to write it, it’s like I have writer’s block.  My own fault for waiting until today to try to come up with a good post.  So I’m going to switch topics and pray that the next Be The Change, I will be better prepared.

If you’ve been reading this blog in the past week you know we had some issues at an investment property we own.  You can read the whole story here.

While I was researching the charges brought against the intruder, I found that the cruelty to animals charge is classified as a Misdemeanor U.  The charge totally confused me, so I did a little research.

A Misdemeanor U is an unclassified crime that still has penalties.  In the state of CT a cruelty to animals charge is punishable by up to 30 days in jail and a $50.00 fine.

Big. Deal.

I don’t know about you, but I find this totally unacceptable.

For my Be The Change For Animals post tonight, I am calling for harsher penalties for animal cruelty.  I intend on contacting my State Representative and ask him what I need to do to get this important issue before the legislature.

I encourage you to do the same.  Take a moment to find out what the penalty for animal cruelty is in your state and if you don’t think it’s strong enough, then find out what you need to do to change it.

Together we can be the change.

The Optimism Of Cats And Dogs

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Yesterday I Still Want More Puppies had a very cute video of a cat.

Honestly, I don’t know where some of you find the time to do all the things you do.  If I had about 8 more waking hours in a day, (and the energy to go with it) I might be able to do half of what some of you do.

But I digress.

I changed the comment I was going to leave on that particular post, because I realized the story would be quite lengthy and it would make a good post. “-)

The year was 2005 B. D. (Before Delilah.)

Sampson was about a year and a half at the time, my daughter and her husband had just gotten married, and they moved from FL to CT and were staying with us.  They brought their two cats with them, Percy and Knuckles.

Percy was a big boy, my boy. Even though he was my daughter’s cat, he was very attached to me and Hubby.  Before she moved to Florida she was in her early 20’s working part-time and going to school full-time.  Percy spent a lot of time with us.  Then she moved and took him to Florida and he hated it.

He was very happy to come back home, but not at all happy that Sampson was now living there. Percy spent a lot of time puffed up at this intruder in his home.

Knuckles was rescued from the mean streets of Lakeland, and was still a kitten.  He rode the entire trip from Florida in my son-in-law’s lap.

To accommodate the two cats, Hubby had installed a cat door in my daughter and SIL’s room.  We figured if the dog was antagonizing them, they would at least have a safe place to retreat to.

Knuckles was/is a pretty cool cat.  He had a little foil ball that you could throw and he would run after it, pick it up in his mouth and bring it back.  It was just about the cutest thing I’d ever seen. 🙂

He did like to tease Sampson though and would wait outside my daughter’s door to get Sampson’s attention and then when Sampson was almost upon him, he would dart inside the room via the cat door.

The house has three bedrooms.  Our bedroom was at one end of the hall facing the bathroom and Lisa and Steve’s room (with the cat door) is to the left of the bathroom door.

This was a time in his life when Sampson would eagerly wait at the door, because he knew Knuckles would be out and he would have an opportunity to meet him.   He did this every morning while Knuckles and Percy lived there.

Seriously you’ve got to love a dog’s optimism.

On this particular morning, Lisa was taking a shower when I opened the bedroom door. As usual Sampson tore down the hallway.  Knuckles (as usual) waited until the last possible minute and turned for the cat door.

Seriously, you’ve got to love a cat’s optimism.

Here’s the thing about cat doors.  In order for them to work, they need to be unlocked.  For some reason on this particular morning, it wasn’t.

God how I wish I had this on video.

Knuckles, the little antagonist, turned for the cat door and finding it closed, spun in the air, twisting and turning looking for escape.  He ended up against the bathroom door.

Sampson, sensing victory, charged forward, all 90 pounds of him.

Lisa screamed and tried to cover herself, as Sampson and Knuckles burst through the bathroom door.

Knuckles was air born at the time and spinning, twisting and snarling as only cats can do and in short fashion sought refuge…..under the tub.

Sampson had him pinned under the tub and he knew it.  He bent down in a play bow, tail wagging happily, only to be defeated once again because he was too big to follow Knuck.

After that day,  when Lisa took a shower, the bathroom door was always locked and the cat door was always unlocked.

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