Dog Gone!

That Gomez is at it again!

Twice this week, he has found a way out of the dog yard. The pulled sections of fence seemed to account for Gomez's recently chipped tooth.

Every dog seems to have a special talent. Emi has a unique way of annoying Big Fat Stevie, a cat twice her size. Gypsy likes digging and then barking at the massive craters she creates. Her brother, Gomez, is a canine escape artist extraordinaire.

While Emi's and Gypsy's talents were immediately obvious, it took some time before we discovered Gomez's special gift.

One day I was sitting in the kitchen when I noticed a black dog running in the side yard. "Gee! That looks an awful lot like Gomez."

It WAS Gomez.

Bringing him inside through the side door, I led Gomez to the back door and put him outside into the dog yard.

Once again I see Mr. Houdini running happily in the side yard.

Second time back into the dog yard, I walked the perimeter of the yard, checking the fence for any obvious breaches. Not finding any, I was confused as to how Gomez could have gotten out.

A few minutes later, the next door neighbor called to say "Your black dog is loose."

As usual, Gomez was trotting around, cheerfully enjoying the new sights and smells.

A more careful inspection was required when I did my second perimeter walk. I still did not see anything obvious, although I noticed that there was some digging behind the outhouse that connected to the dog yard fence.

Though I still could not believe that was the escape route, I nonetheless put some big rocks in the hole behind the privy.

That seemed to do the trick.

And I could not believe what an amazingly talented dog Gomez was.

While his sister Gypsy was always the bright one, Gomez came across as a hyper, though lovable goofball. Yet unbeknownst to any of us, he was a creative genius in finding unusual ways of escape.

Just think! This goober of a dog dug underneath the thankfully unused outhouse and popped out of the toilet seat! Not only that, the lid was down!

This was just the first of many escapes.

Usually months would go by in between escape sessions. Rocks, logs, flotsam and jetsam began to accumulate along the bottom edges of the fence in order to keep this canine contained.

Soon that wasn't enough. He would be gone without leaving a trace.

Gomez would somehow climb over all those obstacles and worm his through under the fence.

Because there was no obvious sign of an escape route, Neil wasn't convinced that Gomez was squeezing through under the fence. He tried staking down the fence in areas where he suspected Gomez was using for his elopements.

But those efforts were to no avail.

One day, when we had a light dusting of snow, my suspicions were confirmed. Gomez was indeed wriggling through the bottom of the fence.

His tracks led through the neighbor's wood shop area, onto Route 6, through our back field, by the garage, and to the driveway and side door.

From then on, I had to start lining the edge of the fence with heavy logs on the neighbor's side. That seemed to work well. And we had no escapes for more than half a year ~ that is until a month or two ago.

Having discovered and sealed up that breach, I thought we were as good as gold. But once again, this week, Gomez proved that he was more than worthy of rising to the challenge.

With the two recent breaches sealed up, it's been so far so good.

However, I can guarantee that lovable goofball is plotting his next escape.