House Arrest

Poor Molly! She is under house arrest and she doesn't understand why. It's really sad, because outside is her favorite place to be! Letting her outside is also the best way to keep her entertained when I'm working.

But... we've got a couple problems. One being that she is proving to be Houdini. To date she has found 4 different ways out of the yard. Fortunately, she found all of them while I was outside with her so I could quickly retrieve her from the neighbor's yards. I keep thinking we've successfully trapped her in the yard only for her to find another way out. We've got one of those three tiered fences (what are those called?) with chicken wire running along the bottom so she can't get out. But she keeps finding ways to squeeze past it.

We've secured one particular fence corner three times. First, we put a giant rock in front of the hole. Seemed simple enough. Then she figured out the chicken wire wasn't properly secured and if she pushed on it, she could still make a big enough opening to fit through. So we took care of that. After a couple trips where she frantically picked at the spot, she figured if she jumped on the chicken wire, she can bend it back with her weight a bit, and then climb it like a ladder so she can climb through one of the higher gaps in the fence. Yeesh!

And since I'm a dork, I caught her in the act on video so you can see what I mean:

My dog is Houdini. We keep blocking her from getting through the fence and then she gets creative!

A post shared by Shelece McAllister (@coolshelece) on Apr 3, 2017 at 3:12pm PDT

(I had the bright idea that I could stop filming and grab her before she made it through the fence. Instead I ended up chasing her down through the neighbor's yard).

The other big problem is that our neighborhood backs onto a forest and is thus infested with predators. Some creature has been climbing fences and leaving disremembered rabbit parts scattered across multiple yards (which frankly I would not have noticed if Molly wasn't so good at finding said parts, escaping our yard if necessary to get to them.) We're still not 100% sure of the culprit, but since then, one late night, we spotted a raccoon out on our street corner. So... it's probably the raccoon. Since that time, Molly has been forbidden from going out at night alone.

We also have at least one hawk that lives behind our house. I say at least one, because one day I looked out the window while Molly was outside and I could see 3 hawks circling the field behind our yard. According to Google, hawks can and do sometime take dogs up to 10 lbs (Molly is almost 8 now). So I was trying to stay out with her during the day too, although not always being good about it to be completely honest, because I was't sure I really believed the hawks were a threat.

Then one day I was cuddling Molly on the couch and the hawk landed outside on the fence. It just sat there for a few minutes, watching us through the window. Eek.

Then yesterday. Molly and I were outside. I was trailing a little bit behind her, trying to read something on my phone, when all of a sudden a big bird swooped past us, very close by and very low to the ground. My first thought was, how weird! At least that wasn't the hawk! Then the bird landed on our neighbor's basketball hoop and sat there watching us. Yes, it was the hawk, and it didn't fly away until I scooped Molly up and headed for the house.

So. Yes, the hawk does want to eat Molly. Hyper vigilance is required. All of this means she is no longer allowed outside on her own, and I can't take her out much during my workday. This has resulted in one unhappy puppy camping out by the back door. Sometimes I really wish she could speak English so I could explain things!