Sunday, May 13, 2012

Where there's a will...

Ray and I had just returned from our walk. As is our custom when Sandra is out of town, we had taken Maddie with us and headed across the street to return her home and chat with Dick, Sandra's husband.
As we stood in the kitchen, Ray let out a yell. Barking was coming from "the promised land" which is catty corner to Dick's backyard. Ray ran to the sliding glass door and demanded to be let out (not unusual for the blind dog, we usually let him out back to explore while we're chatting).
We all headed outside. Ray immediately hurried to the fence at the side of the yard. The promised land had a new foster-dog, a Dachshund, which had been returned to the rescue after FOUR years.
Ray was yelling and jumping at the wooden side-fence; the Dachshund was replying with a string of profanity and"yo mamas." Ray picked his way along the side-fence to the fence at back, which is chain-link. More yelling from Ray and profanities from the Dachshund. I walked over to the wooden side-fence and stuck my head over the top rail. Ray's head was jammed between the last fencepost of the wooden fence and the first fencepost of the chain-link. His disembodied dog head was still yelling. I laughed and returned to the deck to watch the show.
Holly, foster-mom, waved a goodbye and herded her herd back inside the house. Ray, distraught that his friends were gone, picked his way back along the side-fence looking for a way through. He then made a u-turn, went back to the gap in the fences, and squeeeeezed his body through to the yard next door.
Dick and I looked at each other flabbergasted.
I raced off the deck and to the side-fence. I thought briefly of hurtling myself over the top then did the rational thing and exited the yard using the gate and entered the yard next door using a similar gate. A little girl was standing at the sliding glass door looking curiously at the big dog in her yard sniffing his way along a pile of wood stacked along the fence. I gave her a wave, snagged Ray, clipped him to his leash, and led him out.
Dick was standing in his diveway as we came out of the neighbor's yard.
"I guess I'll have to block-off that hole with something," he said, laughing. "Y'know, Maddie has never found that way out." (Maddie is seven years old and a third of Ray's size).
My blind hound never ceases to amaze me.


2 comments:

  1. we know the feeling....how did our blind dog grab a hen through a netting fence and make off with it.....and it was a biggish run she was in....plenty of places to escape to...:-O

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