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The Animals Will Be the Death of Me
I'm going to try to keep this short...bear with me.
Tuesday night, Zoey gave me a minor heart attack. She's fed raw and we typically feed her meals in the backyard; makes for zero cleanup and then she can just go and poop when she's finished. So Tuesday night I feed her, watch her get started (depending on what she's eating, sometimes she takes a while), and go inside to work out dinner for me and H. I'm going to say about 10 minutes later (it might have been a little longer), Zoey hadn't barked to be let in yet, so I peeked outside to check on her. I couldn't see her (our back door faces the side rather than straight back), so I walked outside, called a couple of times, and got nothing. Then I saw what gave me a heart attack. The gate to the front yard was wide open. (As I learned later, this apparently was a known occurence to H, who explained the gate sags a bit and the latch will work itself loose; I could have killed him for never mentioning this before.) At that point, I panic and go running through the gate to the side/front of the house, calling Zoey's name and wondering how far she might have gone. Turns out, not far! Thankfully, she was right in our front yard and came happily running up to me when I called her. End of drama for night 1.
Yesterday, my brother was going over to my house to get several things he'd parked there about a month ago. I found out later that my dad met him there with our spare housekey to let him in; I think they got there around 2:30 or so. They were going to let Zoey out while they were there, because H was up in NY all day attending a family member's funeral. He still wasn't home by the time I got home at nearly 6. I let Zoey out of her crate and opening the back door to let her go pee. And in runs Scamp!!!! I'm like "WTF?! What were you doing outside?!" When I called my brother to yell, he told me my dad had let Zoey out and so he must have let Scamp escape. REALLY!? You've got to be paying pretty little attention to the door for SCAMP to be able to slip out there; she's a chubster and not exactly a bolt of lightning. On the few occasions she tries to slip past me, I have to have left the slider open long enough and then as soon as she hops outside, she basically stops on the patio. HOW did my dad not notice her get out?! She was out there for AT LEAST a couple of hours, with the back gate ONCE AGAIN wide open. I must be the luckiet pet parent alive that she didn't leave the backyard.
Good God...the cosmos is trying to either make my heart or my head explode by screwing around with the security of my furkids! And my sister is telling me it's no big deal and sometimes you just don't see the cat get out. Am I overreacting? Because had it not been for the fact that my dad was AWESOME with Zoey on Tuesday when she spent the day with him, I would have called him up immediately last night and screamed my head off.
B/w 1/8: betas 17,345, progesterone 25.6
Re: The Animals Will Be the Death of Me
Deep breaths!
Glad everyone is ok and home safe! Sounds like its time for a new gate?
Thanks ladies. I do get rather hot-headed about some things. Especially something so important as paying attention to open doors so a beloved pet doesn't have the chance to escape and potentially face injury or becoming lost and hungry! I try to vent it to others rather than the object of my fury, so I appreciate you all putting up with me!
The gate, for sure, needs to be fixed, and I told H that last night. I will not feel comfortable and will be constantly vigilant of it until it's secured.
B/w 1/8: betas 17,345, progesterone 25.6
I've had that happen before (the backyard gate issue). Gotta love when FH takes the recycle or trash out and forgets to latch the gate. I let my dogs out (three of them) and experienced the same thing you did. Luckily they were in my front yard.
It happened again about a month and a half ago, but only with my Golden (Zoe... ironically enough). He forgot to latch it again and she ran down the street to my neighbor about 8 houses down. Luckily I know all my neighbors, so he brought her back to me. Man, was I ever angry at him. I bought a sign from the store (for sale, garage sale, etc) and wrote on the back with permanent marker to keep the gate locked and I stapled it to the gate. Needless to say, I haven't experienced the issue again (knock on wood...). Sometimes, people just need a good, constant reminder.