When I came home from work this afternoon, I stopped out at the end of the driveway to go across the road and get the mail. But before I even opened the truck door, I saw Rocky running toward me off the front porch! What the heck! . . . I had left both Rocky and Joey out in the back dog yard today. I planned to work longer than usual since I had no appointments, so I wanted them to be able to go out when they needed to. So when I saw Rocky but not Joey, I immediately thought, "Oh no! I don't know how they got out, but if Rocky is the only one out here, Joey must be gone!"
So I drove on in and opened up the garage so Rocky could go straight into the house. He obviously wanted to go in, but it was all he could do to get up the three small steps into the house! Poor guy! So I helped him in and headed out to the back to see how he had gotten out -- and to look for Joey! Well, the minute I hit the back door it was obvious what had happened -- there were Duke and Arthur eating grass inside the dog yard!!! And the gate out of the dog yard into the back pasture was wide open. I ran out there to close it but couldn't. There was so much space between the gate and the fence that it wouldn't stay closed at all. Ever since Arthur arrived, when the dogs bark at him he's been backing into that fence (looking as if he plans to kick) and apparently he has managed to bend the posts over enough that the gate is completely out of line at this point. That opening always was a little bit wide so we stood one of those concrete stones laying there in the bottom of the picture below in the opening so that even a small dog couldn't go out that way.
When I took the picture below, I had already run Arthur out of the dog yard, but Duke was paying absolutely no attention to me. He just wanted to stay and eat that special grass. I had to eventually go put his halter on him so I could LEAD him out.
Once I got him out, though, he stood right there at the gate trying to come back in. So I had to take the lead rope off of him and use it to tie the gate shut so he couldn't get back in!
Then I ran over to the hardware store across the road and got several 2-foot long heavy chains and tied the gate to the fence post and stood THREE of those concrete stones in there at the bottom to keep the dogs in.
And speaking of the dogs, I found Joey laying on the bed inside the back porch. It looked to me like he had behaved himself and not gone outside when Duke and Arthur came in and that gate was open. That was a tremendous relief. But I've since discovered that something definitely did happen to him -- apparently something serious enough to run him back inside, because I've since found that he can barely walk! I don't know if he just got worn out chasing after the Arthur and Duke - or if one of them went after HIM! But he is in such pain that he wouldn't even get up to eat this evening and that is NOT him. That is definitely a serious indication of a problem of SOME sort! If the poor guy still can't walk tomorrow I guess I'll have to take off and get him over to either AVS or LSU for an exam. I did check him over myself and didn't find that he had anything broken, and I couldn't see any signs that he had been kicked or bitten, so I'm hoping (fingers crossed) that he's just completely worn out for now. I guess we'll see in the morning.
Always something . . .
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