Dog Difficulties

Well, it finally happened. The neighbor's dog broke through the fence. She literally stuck her paw through a small hole and pulled the board apart. Then she came through to our yard. I happened to be outside and see it, Bill was just inside the door and he saw her flying into our yard so he started yelling at me to get Frasier and Maggie inside - he was trying to get out there himself. Fortunately, the dog was friendly. Because if she had been aggressive, Bill would probably have shot her. Frasier has a trick he does when I try to drag him somewhere by his collar, he falls over and won't move. Today was no exception. It took me a few tries, and not a little yelling, but I got him to get up and we got him inside. Maggie was much easier. Bill blocked the dogs inside and I shut the gate to their small yard. Then I dealt with the visitor! She is a mama dog, which might explain all the additional dog noises I've heard from their garage when we take our walks. She was quite happy to come to me, she even went back through the hole in the fence willingly. But before I could find something to block the hole with, she was back. She came back to me, but it took a little work to get her back through the hole. Then I blocked it with one of my milk cans - you know, the heavy metal kind that weight a ton. I stood it against the fence but then I changed my mind and it's now on it's side with the lid against the hole - I thought that it might fall over too easily when it was standing up, if a dog tries to ram through the hole. Bill's going to go talk to them tomorrow, they didn't seem to be home today. He's also going to rework the electric fence so that it will run along the ground on that side, after he fixes the hole in the fence if they don't.

They never did finish fixing their front fence, from when they rented the backhoe and were going to put in a water feature in the back yard. That fence still has lots of loose boards, and also a couple of missing boards. One of their dogs can get his head through and we won't be surprised if one day the entire dog comes through the fence. The back fence was also taken apart, they had all the rocks stacked outside the back yard that they were going to use on their water feature. I'm not sure if the back fence is actually fixed or not, it was open for several weeks and it might just be leaning instead of re-installed.

At this point, we do hope that they are renters because if they own the house then they will likely be there for a very long time. If they are renters, they might not be there forever and they don't seem to be worried about upkeep. We originally thought that they had bought it, but I overheard their conversation the other day when they were out in their back yard and it sounded like they might be renting. It was a rent house before, but the owner at the time at least was a real-estate agent. For the record, I wasn't eavesdropping - I was sitting out on my deck enjoying the afternoon and they were talking to someone who I think was visiting, and they were just loud enough that I could not ignore them. These are the same people who have/had the dog that bit Maggie (and tried to bite me) when it got it's head through a different hole in the same fence - I think that particular dog is the one that has almost gotten out through the front hole. After I put the cinderblock against the hole Maggie was bitten through, that dog quit trying to come through. I think it might have developed a sudden, severe, cinderblock-induced headache!

That was the excitement for Saturday. Tomorrow's excitement will include a trip to Lowe's, driving practice for Otter, church and we'll start getting the tulip bed ready for planting in the near future. Bill's plans also include a visit to the neighbor's!