What A End to the Week!

Houdini's Gone... but he didn't escape!

Friday was a really nice day and since I spent much of my morning at work outside that was nice! My boss, Sally, fosters dogs until a home is found for them. They are usually puppies. She has two places in her barn where she can put them. The place of choice is an old storage area but it was contaminated by some sick puppies awhile back and she hadn't yet gotten to it to disinfect. So the puppies she got Friday morning, just as she was getting ready to leave for ABQ, were put in the 2nd area, back in a stall behind the horse's stall.

The lady who had dropped them off hadn't been gone more than a few minutes when we saw the puppies (all 4 of them) running around the barnyard, and Sally's dogs (4 older ones) wildly barking. When we went to investigate how they got out we found they had dug under the partition. So the only place S had for the pups was the run off her main place but the door into that area would have to be kept closed and she would have to clean it later in the day... she had to get to ABQ.

Two of the puppies came right to us... in fact they tried to climb us, and they'd catch at our coats with their teeth and tug. S couldn't get the outside gate open into this area, so I climbed the fence (good things there wasn't a camera around!) and then she handed the pups thru. The 3rd pup she had coaxed to her but the 4th was hiding. Mine you, S is all dressed for town, but to get that 4th pup she had to get down on hands and knees reaching under stuff to pull him out. Oh he was scared! and fought her but she was very calm and soon had the pup calmed in her arms.

That one we put into the fenced area thru the door from the barn. But outside there was no place for them to have sufficient protection if the weather turned cold, so she brought a crate for transporting animals (large enough for all 4 though it would crowded) and then found old blankets to cover it with. To distract them while she was working we fed and watered them... helped for a short time. ;-) Then having given them things to play with we went back into the house. S was a mess.

But within 15 min. we saw one of the pups out in the yard - outside the barnyard! - running totally free. We called him Houdini. We ran out but couldn't find how he'd gotten out, tho we took fire logs and laid them all along the fence to keep them from digging.

Then we went back inside. No sooner were we out of sight but able to watch from the window and we saw Houdini climbing the fence. Out we went again. We found him wedging himself in a corner to inch him way up and then since the fence was low at that section, up and over and free! I filled the area where he would wedge himself with more fire logs standing upright so they couldn't climb them and S finally went on her way with instructions to me to spray bitter apple in the Houdini's face if he continued to try.

Well, I had to spray him twice, but it didn't phase him. So I found some chicken wire lying in a pile of who knows what and pulled it out... it just fit in the area that was low, so I fastened it into place, then found a railroad tie and drug it over. It was too heavy to heft over the fence to block the area so I just leaned it against the fence so it slightly leaned inward, completely closing off the area where the pup could climb.

This pup was determined to escape. The silly little fellow then tried in another area to pull the fence away from the logs with his teeth. So I had to roll logs several layers high against the fence all around and finally there were no more escapes.

But Houdini really is gone. Someone came over the weekend and adopted him, leaving his three brothers behind.

To bad I didn't have my camera with me that day so I could get a picture of Houdini and especially one of him wedged and climbing!





The corner where the gate and fence meet is where Houdini climbed and I had to fill with fire logs with the heavy railroad tie on the outside leaning in.