Looked out the window this morning and saw Joey pulling at the extra wire Mark added to the bottom of the chain link fencing last weekend. He wasn't accomplishing much, but he did have it up off the ground so I walked out there to make him put it down and saw Rocky taking off across the back pasture! What! How the heck did he get out of there???
Rocky has always been the "perfect dog" -- he's never done anything at all wrong. VERY unusual for a Catahoula. But I guess those genes eventually surface. Our first Catahoula, Pete, used to be able to escape from virtually any type of enclosure. Looks like Rocky is trying to take after his predecessor. Apparently he lifted the 2 feet of wire off the ground, pulled it loose from the fence, and then made his way under the chain link. (Joey wasn't bright enough to figure out how to follow him, thankfully.) But Mark is going to have to put the extra wire piece back in place and attach it better, then weight it down with MUCH heavier stepping stones that are too large for Rocky to move out of the way before he heads back to work. The main reason for having those stepping stones on there was just to keep the wire flat against the ground so the grass could grow up through it and attach it to the ground, but I guess a second reason, in the interim, will have to be to keep Rocky from lifting the wire! We'll need much larger/heavier stones.
Should have known -- things have just seemed WAY too peaceful and calm lately. Sigh.
We are also considering adopting a dog that Torri told me about. Well, maybe I should say "I" am considering it. (Mark NEVER wants to add another animal, although he's usually pretty happy with them once they're here.) Here's what Torri had to say about him when she first told me about him:
I'm thinking I'd really like to give this boy a second chance. After all, Ben had been turned in to Animal Control after killing all HIS former owner's ducks and look what a wonderful dog HE turned out to be. In fact, although this dog looks like a shepherd mix (his former owner said he was a husky mix but he looks like a shepherd to me) and Ben was Chow/Lab mix, there is still something eerily similar about their demeanor.
[He is] a 7 year old Husky mix. He is a volunteer donor that will be euthanized if we can't find him a home. He lives out in the country with his current owner and he has killed 4 of her goats, so she wants to euthanize him. I talked her into letting us try to find a home for him first, so I will pick him up from her tomorrow morning. He is a really sweet dog, and one of our best donors. I just couldn't see putting him to sleep without giving him a chance in a different home. He gets along well with other dogs. He currently lives with 3 other big dogs. Whoever ends up with him will also have the option to keep him as a donor or to retire him. It is very hard to find a home for a big dog, but we couldn't see him being euthanized for killing the goats. I will take pictures of him this weekend and see more of what his personality is like around the house. When he is here at the school he is great, which says a lot for him already.
The dog donors ... receive a can of dog food after the donation is complete, then they get a 40# bag of Science Diet or a case of canned food. They get free bloodwork which includes a CBC/Chemistry panel, heartworm test, and E.Canis, Platys, Babesia, and Erlichia screening. They also get free yearly vaccines, and heartworm prevention. There are definite benefits to having a donor on the program. They are the sole providers for any animal in the hospital that needs blood.
I'm thinking I'd really like to give this boy a second chance. After all, Ben had been turned in to Animal Control after killing all HIS former owner's ducks and look what a wonderful dog HE turned out to be. In fact, although this dog looks like a shepherd mix (his former owner said he was a husky mix but he looks like a shepherd to me) and Ben was Chow/Lab mix, there is still something eerily similar about their demeanor.
For a very long time after we adopted him, whenever we would look directly at Ben, he would look away, as Bouchon is doing in this first picture. (His name, "Bouchon," means "stopper" or "cork" in French -- wonder how they came up with that for a name.)
In this next picture, he is laying exactly as Ben used to lay. Maybe it has to do with how much I miss Ben, but I just see such a similarity between them.
Anyway, Torri took Bouchon home with her and is keeping him out there for a while to be sure he is, in fact, NOT dangerous to other animals or people. After that, well . . . if she and Daniel don't get so attached to him that they decide to keep him, we'll decide then.
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