Thursday, June 7, 2012

Lucy: Houdini reincarnated

By Jeff

My long-haired Guamanian jungle shepherd, Yigo, spoiled me. He was used to be a loner, so he never really got separation anxiety. At least he never showed it by breaking out of his crate or chewing on household items.

Ever since I adopted him, I haven't had any problem leaving him alone in the house to roam. I could surround him with any kind of valuables and wouldn't have to worry about a scratch on any of them. He's much more interested in licking himself, sleeping, looking out the window and sleeping.

Lucy is the polar opposite.

She gets crazy separation anxiety. She gets very antsy when Julianna and I leave as if she thinks we are never coming back.

At first, she was fine in her crate. We'd come home and she'd be laying in the crate and get incredibly excited whenever she saw us. But one day we came home and we were greeted by two dogs at the door despite locking Lucy in her crate when we left.

What?!

She then proceeded to chew the shit out of numerous items in the house. somehow she got on my dresser to my Kindle Fire. It still works, there is just a crack in the top left corner. I know you were concerned.

In an attempt to thwart Lucy's escapes, we bungee corded the crate.

It worked for a day.

We came home on the second day of the bungee experiment and she had chewed through it and escaped again.

We escalated the battle to padlocking the crate. It worked perfectly... for a week.

I came home Tuesday and she had somehow worked her way out. She had cracked the plastic bottom of the crate, wedged her nose under the bottom bar, pulled up and managed to squeeze through despite her size.

How the hell do I combat that? Well, I got another crate, the other had a slight crack that she then made worse, so a new crate should do the trick, I thought. And on the way home from Petco I stopped at the grocery and grabbed another padlock.

Well, I came home last night and Lucy was at the door waiting for me again!

She had knocked the crate on it's side and squeezed out the bottom again (now the front).

Well, I'm not about to let a dog keep outsmarting me. I surrounded her crate with other objects to prevent it from being knocked over again. There was no way she was tipping that baby again.

Well I came home tonight and there Lucy was at my door with a giant smile on her face!

I am throwing in the towel. There is no stopping this escape artist. She has defeated me. I am going to get a thick chain, but somehow she'll get out.

I personally blame Yigo for most of this. He's here all day. He could put a stop to these escapes, but I think he just sits and watches. Or runs upstairs and hides when he hears loud noises.

The Animals - We Gotta Get Out of This Place

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