Chasing Fate

Friday, October 25, 2024

Yesterday morning, the arrival of winter felt more real because ice was coating the waters for my chickens and horses. I got busy quickly, setting out heated buckets in the coop area and installing water heaters in the horse troughs.

High on my mind was that my dog Chase had been escaping, and very quickly. I couldn’t catch him in the act nor see how or where he was getting out. Finally, I saw and was again amazed by his strength and determination.

I watched Chase rush toward the six-foot fence. Getting close, he leaped directly at the fence fabric, his front feet grabbing high and rear feet grabbing nearly as high. He hoisted himself right over.

He accomplished that in four moves: running fast, leaping high, grabbing with front and back feet, and going over.

I put all the dogs inside my house and then worked, adding wire to heighten the escape area of the fence. Afterward, I fed the dogs before briefly allowing them outside again. Guess what? When the dogs came inside, there was no Chase.

He was invisible in the evening’s darkness; he wasn’t at the garage door where he usually appears after escaping. I checked and rechecked a sight of him. Finally, I gave up, went to bed, and left Chase in Fate’s unpredictable hands.

I worried all night.

When I let the dogs go outside before today’s first light, I saw Chase standing near the garage door. He came inside happy and no worse for wear.

This morning’s worries: Where might the fence need more height? Will more heightening help with containment? Or…?

Dear Friends: The AI-generated blog header is almost exactly Chase escaping. Diana

Daze Off

Tuesday, October 21, 2024

Yesterday, after feeding my horses and chickens, I spent a couple of hours raising the height of a section of the fence surrounding a large area where my dogs may be outside safely and in relative freedom.

I became intent on raising the fence section’s height. My puppy Chase had discovered a spot allowing a foothold that he could access, climb, and escape to freedom. He was freeing himself routinely, and I needed to interrupt his cleverness before he escaped more.

I found some unused fencing in a shed. I wired the extra fabric to the standing fence, lifting the fence top by a foot. I let the dogs out and watched Chase dash to the area of my fix, and he couldn’t climb.

I’d been working long hours at my part-time job in a large department store. I felt tired and decided not to work more on the property but instead go horseback riding. I’d take the dogs and they’d be able to run lots. Unfortunately, the area weather didn’t cooperate. The afternoon became very windy and cold, making me hesitate about physically being in the open and roaming on horseback.

Today is another off from my part-time job. If the weather cooperates this afternoon, I will gather the horses and dogs and head for the Great Outdoors.

By the way, today’s header photo might seem AI-generated, but it isn’t. It’s a photo of Sunni from my camera. It illustrates similarities between “constructed and real,” suggesting how much AI imagery has developed. It also illustrates how images on social media and other sources may confuse and manipulate us.

Dear Friends: The outside temp has dipped to 37 degrees–good gravy! Diana

Evening Delight

Friday, March 22, 2024

Last evening in the darkness, I arrived home from work and saw my puppy, Chase, sitting in the big standalone dog run, on its concrete pad and waiting for me. The other dogs were safely inside the separate fenced dog area. Everything, as planned, was okay.

Before leaving for work, I had imprisoned Chase in an isolated big dog run because he had been in trouble with me the previous evening. That’s when I found he had dug a dog escape hole under the fence, and my littlest dog had wiggled through and was running freely. Experience with Chase teaches that he’s a compulsive digger and is proving unstoppable. My best hope is that next year, when he turns three years old, he’ll be more mature and much easier to live with.

After releasing the totally delighted boy and seeing him bounce happily last night, I invited him to accompany me to the barn. He dashed in large circles around trees and tracked me down the hill; he busily sniffed at the ground trails of visiting critters while I fed horses and replenished goat hay. In that scenario, Chase stays nearby, responds quickly to my voice, and is excited, busy, and he’s fun.

I’ve had lifelong experiences with dogs. Chase has been with me since he was eight weeks old, and my experience makes him nearly a great puppy, except that he’s a phenomenal escape artist. Maybe eventually, everything will come together, proving we’ve achieved some key objectives, that Chase (and the littlest dog) have remained safely contained, and that Chase is maturing visibly.

Dear Friends: Never again, another puppy, neither on a bet nor a whim. Diana