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Thursday, July 14, 2011

Where oh where has my little dog gone??

Coach had me singing this melody yesterday when she decided to escape from the backyard yesterday!  Here is the picture of the escapee:


Ok - now that can picture my little escape artist, let me paint you a picture of how she began her adventures beyond her fence.  As you know, I'm a new mom and whether it is right or wrong, I have a new focus in my life these days.  Anyway, little Stella was showing signs of sleepiness but really fighting it so I was making a strong effort to get her eyes to close.  While I was rocking her to sleep, Coach decided that she HAD to go outside at that very moment and started whining like crazy so I stood up (which of course sent Stella back into her awake mode) and let Coach into the backyard.

About 10 minutes later, I heard her scratching at the back door asking to come in but I had just gotten Stella to fall asleep and figured Coach could wait to come in, especially since she was so insistent about needing to go out.  I was sitting on the couch with Stella on my chest sleeping and about 10 minutes later, Matt got home.  He did his usual routine and then he asked, "Where's Coach?"  I replied that she was outside so he opened the door and called for her.  No answer, no dog.  So I thought...maybe I let her in and didn't remember so he went and looked upstairs.  No answer, no dog.  At this point, I was thoroughly freaked out.  I stood up, put Stella down and went running outside...no dog.  I ran upstairs and looked in every room, under every bed and in every closet...no dog.  Matt came in and said, "I think she crawled under the fence" and sure enough, there were little paw scratch marks in the dirt at the front of the fence.

Matt grabbed his keys and quickly got into his car.  He took off down the street on our normal walk route.  I couldn't just stay home so I grabbed Stella and put her in her car seat and popped it in the stroller.  I knew my dad took coach into the fields near our house so I chose to walk the stroller to the end of the cul de sac, hoping I would see her somewhere because I couldn't roll the stroller into the fields...it isn't really made for off-roading.  Now keep in mind that right now all of the brush in the fields is a yellow/orange color which is almost identical to Coach's coloring so I knew it would be difficult to see her. 

So there I am at the end of our cul de sac with the stroller and I'm calling out Coach's name.  Sure enough, I see her about 100 yards South of me in the field next to the railroad tracks.  This is where I become a bit spastic and I'm sure it was hysterical to anyone watching...I start getting that excited voice you use when talking to dogs, "Come here Coach...come here," while slapping my legs and clapping at her.  Since Coach is a Shiba and Shibas are a breed known for bolting, I didn't want to run towards her because I knew she would just take off.  I remembered a trainer telling us that they love to chase so if they ever got out or off leash to call their name, clap and run in the direction you want them to come (essentially run away from them) which is so counter intuitive but that is what I did.  I started running away from her and back to our house. 

Sure enough, Coach started to come and chase me.  I almost got to our driveway before I realized, I had left the stroller in the middle of the cul de sac!!! Like I said, I was a bit spastic!  So I ran back for the stroller and Coach zoomed past me and right up to our front door.  I pushed the stroller back to the house, ran up the porch steps and let her into the house.  I closed the door behind me and gave her a huge welcome home pet and then realized that, once again, I had left my baby!!! WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME?!?! I ran outside and brought the carseat and stroller inside.  Now before you go calling CPS on me...keep in mind that this all happened in a matter of seconds and the baby was never in danger but my brain was not functioning correctly at that point!

I finally breathed a sigh of relief knowing that Coach was home and I had my baby inside and she was safe too.  Just as I start to calm down and relax, I was snapped back to reality by the wailing cries of a hungry baby.  So I sat down to feed her and then the rest of the night was life as usual. 

We have figured out why, after a year of living at this house, Coach decided to escape now.  We just recently installed a sprinkler system and hydroseeded the backyard so the sprinklers are going off 4x per day to water the seed.  Well, those of you that know Coach know that she is a pretty skittish dog and scares easily.  We think the sprinklers went off and she didn't know what to do so she crawled under the fence to escape the evil water monsters invading her sanctuary.  We aren't really sure exactly how long she was outside but we don't think it could have been much more than 20 minutes.  I'm just hoping and praying that she will never scare us like this again!

Now on to a Stella update...She is growing wonderfully! She is now 10 weeks and 3 days old.  It is hard to believe that it has already been 10 weeks!  She is now over 12 lbs and 22" long.  At her 2 month appointment, she measured 50% on height and head circumference and 75% on weight, which the doctor said was great!  She is developing a little personality and smiling more every day.  She is also blessing us with a 6-8 hour stretch of sleep every night.  I feel pretty blessed to have such an amazing baby!  Here are a few pics of her from this week:



She's pretty perfect if you ask me...but I'm her mom, so I am a bit biased!

2 comments:

  1. hysterical!! glad they both made it home safely ;)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Coachie.....DON'T run away again!! That scares the Mommy!!

    ReplyDelete