What's the most frustrating, pet-related thing you're having to deal with lately? Maybe if we all share stuff, someone will have a suggestion that will help us out!
Charmin is my biggest problem right now. I can NOT keep her tied - all my dogs are on 15' ties, giving them a 30'diameter area, with their individual doghouse, water & shade accessible - I know, I know, I'd rather have them loose, too. But there's too much sand around here to make the fence "dig-proof", & besides, I worry about Max beating up Clay or Toby & Max having a knock-down-drag-out without me here to break it up. Anyway, they're all loose whenever I'm home & in the house as much of that time as they want.
So, anyhow- Charmin will slip her collar, slip/break a harness, break those plastic-coated, steel cables.... just incorrigible! I spent over $30 & made her a sliding runner, with a pulley & everything; it took her a little longer, but she figured out how to get out of that, too. So, I decided she could be in the house, enjoying the AC, which worked until the day she ate part of the door frame! Back outside she went! I got a new collar & snap & it worked for a while. But then, one day she got a brand new, straight, strong plastic-coated cable wrapped around a back leg & then twisted & twisted & pulled & yanked until, when I got home, her lower leg was all swollen & cool/cold to the touch! (This wasn't the first time she'd done this, but it was the worst time!) Fortunately, she laid quietly & let me get it untwisted- she'd gotten it so bound up that it was almost broken through! She was using the leg, although limping, so I didn't take her to the emergency clinic & the leg is fine now, although it's got a possibly permanent scar around it. But she obviously has NO qualms about seriously injuring herself to escape.
When she's loose in the yard, I have to watch her because she's absolutely intent on getting out if I leave the slightest gap in a gate & she will NOT come back when I call. She does come back in a fairly short time, though. She dug under the front fence one time, so I ran a hot wire along that part & she got stung by that 3 times before she learned. (Amusingly, she never even gave a thought to the other 3 fencelines, even before the hot wire.)
Anyone else had to deal with such a focused & determined escapee? It bothers me, too, that all she can think of is getting out of the yard & away. I provide a good home for my dogs & all she wants to do is be somewhere else!
Jenny
I have the ability of single-minded determination and focu... Hey, look! A horse!
