In the Doghouse

These three are in the doghouse. They are, from left to right, Princess, Woobie and Coco. Coco is the mom, and the other two are her pups. Don't let their cuteness fool you. They are trouble. They are master escape artists. For several days now, they've managed to escape from the backyard and go exploring the neighborhood. This despite Chuck's constant efforts to block their escape.

The entire backyard is chickenwired. Boards are up over the remaining escape holes. And yet, still they manage to escape. At first it was just Coco and Princess leaving the premses. Each time they escaped Chuck would "fix it". And still they would escape. Woobie was the "good one". She would stay behind and run to the sliding door to announce her mother and sister's escape. You know it says in the Bible that "evil company corrupts good manners." On Sunday, Woobie joined the ranks of the escapees and went with them.

We returned from church on Sunday to find all three of them missing. There was a note taped to our garage saying that the dogs were being kept at a neighbor's down the hill. They had been discovered in her backyard visiting with her dog. When we got home, Chuck once again "fixed" the place of escape. And the dogs were banished to the laundry room.

Yesterday, I asked the kids to take them out in the backyard (since they were going crazy inside) and watch them closely so they wouldn't escape. Meanwhile I went to take a shower. The kids got involved in some kind of sword-fighting game devised by Eric and the next thing they knew the dogs were gone. It took an hour and a half of traipsing down the hills, knocking on doors down the hill and general searching to recover them. It turns out they weren't down the hill at all.

This time they walked "up the hill" to a nearby busy street and were rescued by a kind lady from the midst of dodging traffic. That's what she told us, anyway. I'm really glad I didn't see it. She flagged down my son who was combing the streets and asked if he was looking for three little dogs. She kindly kept them in her back yard, and got them back in after they escaped from it.

This has got to stop. These three will remain "in the doghouse" until further notice. I'm looking into those electric collars.