Tag: frustration

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Silly Dog. Fence Is for Rabbits!

I awoke to another call about our escaped dogs. They happened to be in the same neighborhood, so I got over to them and they ran up to the car. They didn’t even hesitate to jump into the Murano for the ride home, and now I’m thinking they just like riding around in a car. I took them for a walk around the block, but Muad’Dib couldn’t get enough. I was still exhausted though, so I went in and tried going back to sleep for a bit, but never had a good time with it. Summer got up and made eggs and corned beef hash for breakfast. Eaddie slept in, and I was more than a little jealous.

I tried calling the vet and a couple other places to see if anyone could take both dogs for the duration of our vacation, but the closest thing I could find was our own vet, who could only take one dog. I knew then that I would have to fix the fence issue for real, so I picked up Dad and we went to Harbor Freight for some bold cutters and Lowe’s for some welded wire fencing. They had a few different options, but we went with the fencing for rabbits on account of how much cheaper it was, and I figured it would do the job well enough. It was a little easier to bend than the other stuff, but I think with enough staples it should hold.

After we left Lowe’s, I dropped Dad off so he could take care of some stuff, and I went home to get some containers to bring home some rice for lunch. Then I picked Dad back up and we got the wire fence installed. There were still a couple places that could have used some work, but I think overall we have a pretty good chance of thwarting their next escape plan.

I let Dad take the Murano home and I rode over on the Onewheel to swim. Without any recovery time, my whole body has been aching, and I hate the thought that I’ll struggle at Disney now because of it. I’ve got exactly no time left to recoup.

When I got back home, Eaddie and I tried to clean house and she packed her bags. I had to go back across town to pick up a shirt for Summer and fix the fish feeder, but I forgot to return our unused bolt cutter. I also forgot that we had technically tried to use it to cut a twisted wire that was holding the fence roll together, and noticed a small mark on the tip of the cutters that made it pretty obvious that something had actually been cut.

As soon as I got back to the house and got out of the car, my phone slid out of my lap and onto the driveway where the back glass shattered. Most of the glass was contained, but I was mad all the same. I suppose this is what the insurance is for, but I hated that it happened at such an inconvenient time.

Eaddie and I eventually took the dogs out for another walk while we waited for Summer to come home from work. Then I took a shower and Eaddie brought Noah over to housesit. We’ll just have to wait and see what happens tonight.

haustion

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Dog Caller

The tags I engraved last night worked and I awoke to a call from a couple, John and Becky in the Pinecrest neighborhood, who had Muad’Dib and Stilgar. It tickled me that John said he was very familiar with Dune, and could only read Stilgar’s tag, but knew that the other must be Muad’Dib. Summer and I got up and drove over to get them, but she ended up just walking them around the block to get back home. They had pulled out the board I nailed up yesterday, so I had to secure it better.

After that, Summer had some work to do from home while I had some coffee and caught up on a bunch of bills. Eaddie eventually made it home from her birthday sleepover with friends, and then Summer and I left to run some errands and do some shopping. We stopped by the old house first so I could try and find my automatic fish feeder and see if I had a cooling towel to take on the trip. I noticed the tiny peaches were ripened on the small tree by the front walkway, so I had Summer pick a bunch while she waited for me.

From there, we checked out Tractor Supply to see what they had for dogs. All of the electric fences they had “for dogs” were buried cable with electronic collars, but Dad suggested a proper electric conductor to shock them away from the fenceline. Next we stopped by Walmart and picked up a few things for the trip. They had one of the collars I liked on sale, so I went ahead and grabbed it too. Then I wanted to stop by Shoe Carnival to see if they had any better walking shoes. I wasn’t willing to pay what they were asking though, so we continued to Hardee’s for a quick dinner before Summer had to go conduct a staff meeting.

I dropped Summer off at the wash, ran to the old house for a bit, and then went to Lowe’s to spend some rewards cash I had earned. They happened to have some charcoal on sale, so I was basically only out of pocket for the tax. By the time I finished looking around there, Summer was done and I took her home.

It seemed less awful outside when we got there, so I took the dogs for a walk by myself around the block. Stilgar kept pulling on the leash, which has been uncommon for him. Muad’Dib did pretty well, but they both struggled with attention, and only minded me when it suited them. I’m not sure what it’s going to take to break them of that. When we got back to the house, Stilgar was happy to take a swim, but Muad’Dib sat down in the driveway and didn’t want to move. If I hadn’t been drenched in sweat, I would have taken him out a little longer by himself, but it was just miserable. I tried to make up for it inside, but he just went under the porch and sulked.

Eaddie had gone out with Eli for a bit, but she made it home and we all wound down. I helped her compose a response to Beth’s beckoning for her to spend her senior year in Wisconsin. Sometime after Midnight, I heard dogs barking and went outside to find that ours had gotten into the neighbor’s yard again. At least they hadn’t gotten any farther, but they ignored my calls to come home, and even stopped barking as though they were trying to hide. Concerned they might have left the neighbor’s yard, I rode around the block but then heard Stilgar barking again, so I headed home. This time they were happy to meet me at the fenceline where I had barricaded them out already, so I let them back in and then attached yet another board to the fence. This is like some kind of reverse Stockholm syndrome by which I want to keep them the more they try to escape.

Checklists of Checklists

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Ten Mile Search

The dogs woke me up super early with some barking, but they were just laying on the porch. As soon as I opened the door, they mauled me and wanted to play, but I was too sleepy and went back to bed. The next thing I knew, Eaddie was up checking on them and they had vanished through a new, large hole in the fence. I got up and rode around looking for them, and found Muad’Dib pretty quickly, but could never find Stilgar. Muad’Dib followed me home, but stopped a few houses down to hide in someone’s garage. I ended up knocking on her door to see if maybe Stilgar was in there, but she didn’t seem terribly happy about the dogs being loose every day, and there was no Stilgar. She mentioned she had called animal control on them last week, but they were never picked up.

Eaddie came and took Muad’Dib back home since I couldn’t retrieve him without a leash. Then I rode the block several times, blowing my dog whistle to try and attract Stilgar. Eaddie left to spend her birthday with some friends at the lake. The day just kept getting hotter and I eventually gave up for long enough to take a shower. I called the animal shelter, and their answering message said they would be open until four on Saturdays, so I ran across town to check there. A couple of girls were sitting in a dark office just hanging out, and they recognized Stilgar immediately. They had seen posts on Facebook from people that had seen them. Evidently he ended up on my parents’ side of the neighborhood, so I ran back to try and find him.

Summer got home from work, and I still couldn’t find Stilgar while I was driving, so I went home to get the Onewheel again and took Summer’s car to my parents’ house so I could start from there. I got up to the top end of Camelot, and Stilgar was panting in some water on the front porch behind a couple kids playing in a kiddie pool. The father said he had been sitting there for quite a while, so I ran back to get the car and took him home. He was so hot and tired that he just laid down in the front seat while I pet him.

With everyone back home safe, I knew I had to get collars. All we had seen were plastic clips, but I wanted a collar with an actual metal buckle. Summer and I tried to go to Price’s Town & Country, but they were closed, so we went to La Huerta to get some food. Then we went to PetSmart, T.J.Maxx, and Ross. We didn’t see anything that we absolutely loved, so we started to go to Tractor Supply, but we both got belly aches and decided to go home instead.

After a break from the heat, I went back out to Atwood’s to see what they had. They did actually have a surprising variety of collars, and I ended up picking a simple, cheap, blue one for Muad’Dib. I would have liked it to be wider, but the wider ones were all too long. They happened to also have kiddie pools, so I grabbed one of those and stuffed it into the car for Stilgar.

When I got back home, I filled up the pool and then took the dogs on a walk to my parents’ house to borrow Dad’s engraving tool. I poured sweat the entire time, and it was absolutely miserable. The dogs did pretty well on my 20-foot double-ended leash, but ultimately what I wanted for two dogs were two really short leashes for discipline. They did alright, but they still got distracted several times.

We got back home and Stilgar laid in the pool to cool off. I went inside and engraved my phone number onto their rabies tags, and then spent the rest of the evening researching GPS collars. If I can’t keep them in for now, maybe I can at least recover them more quickly.

Great. Dog subscriptions.

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Dog Days of Summer

I slept in a little bit today, and the dogs dug a new hole under the fence. I rode around and found Muad’Dib a couple blocks southwest, but didn’t see Stilgar anywhere. We looked around for a little bit, and then I got a call from the vet asking if we had him, because some lady brought in a dog that looked just like him. Muad’Dib and I started rolling back toward home so we could go get Stilgar, but then he just turned away from me and started walking toward a guy that was walking down the street. We ended up at the cemetery before Eaddie got to us with the leashes, and we loaded him up and headed to the vet. She said the lady came in a little panicked, and wanted to chip him. I would have been fine with it if she paid for it, but I couldn’t understand why that would be someone’s go-to action for a lost dog. It didn’t necessarily sound like she wanted to keep him, but maybe she did.

We finally got everyone home, and I went outside to brick up the fence, and nail some new pallet wood above it. That seemed to work, because the dogs were in the yard for the rest of the day while Eaddie and I ran around town.

We showered first, and then went to Superfast to see if Summer wanted to join us for lunch. She said she couldn’t, so the two of us went to New China. After that we went to PetSmart to browse for dog stuff. We looked at the little kiddie pools they had, but decided to try and find a cheaper one somewhere else.

Next we went to Ross and then T.J.Maxx to look for a swim suit for Eaddie. She found a couple she liked, but we ended up buying one she saw yesterday and missed out on when someone else picked it up. I guess the other girl didn’t care for it, or maybe they stocked a new one. In any case, Eaddie was happy.

We stopped at Harbor Freight, but couldn’t find any clasps for my homemade leash, so we went to Walmart and picked up a couple from there. They were out of pools, and thus started the great search. We went to the nearby Dollar General where they had just sold their last one. We decided to get something to drink, but at $2.30 for a 20oz Coke, we ended up buying two cartons of Minute Maid fruit punch for $3.

After that, we stopped back by PetSmart to look at their pool again, but after sizing it up, I felt it was too small for Stilgar, and definitely too small if both of them wanted to splash around at once. We went across town to the newer Dollar Tree and then another Dollar General on our side of town, but nobody had a pool. We finally made it back home and rested for a while. I had a pretty bad headache, so I laid in bed for most of the remaining afternoon.

We eventually got up and went to my parents’ house to swim for a bit. We got back home a little before Summer did, and played with the dogs a bunch more. I was exhausted, so we wound down pretty quickly from there. Hopefully the dogs will still be there in the morning, because I don’t know how much more of this I can take.

Collars next.

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Defence Dog

I could hear Stilgar yelping around the block when I went outside this morning, so I rode over to Ridgewood and found Muad’Dib harassing another dog behind a fence. I got him home and then went back to find Stilgar with his head stuck in a chain link gate. I don’t even know how he got into it, because it was tight. They both did a great job following me home, but I’m still so sick of them getting out in the first place.

Work was still quiet, though I went to a couple classrooms today to deploy some newly imaged computers. I couldn’t really start on any big projects in case something broke in my absence, so I just rode out the day.

Eaddie and Eli took the dogs to the vet in the morning, so Eaddie called afterward to give me the details. They said Muad’Dib was about a year old and likely had some huskey in him. Apparently the vet pinched off at least one of the warts on his mouth, and Eaddie said he didn’t mind at all. They pegged Stilgar at about five months old and didn’t know what kind of dog he was, but said he would get pretty big.

Everyone was gone when I got home, including the dogs. They had dug under the fence again to play with the neighbors’ dogs. I figured they’d be fine since they weren’t paying any attention to me on our side of the fence, so I went to Walgreens for a pickup order and then rode to my parents’ house to give them some of the corn I got from school. I ate some leftovers there and then headed back home to mend the fence.

The dogs were gone from the neighbor’s yard, so I rode about six and a half miles around the neighborhood looking for them. They eventually caught up to me around Ridgewood again, and sprinted straight home with me. We’ve got to work on the obedience, but at least they know where home is.

The girls were home by then, and though I didn’t see much of Eaddie, Summer and I talked for a little bit before she went to bed. The dogs were exhausted from playing and running, and I was exhausted from another week of searching for them every day. Hopefully we have this figured out before we leave.

Nails

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On Leash

I rode the Onewheel around the block this morning and found the dogs playing in someone’s garden on the corner of Ridgewood. They ran after me full-speed when they saw me, and heard me blowing the dog whistle I got from Dad. They ran all the way home, and though they hesitated to go back into the gate, they laid down on the porch like they might just rest a while. Unfortunately they were gone again by the time I left for work, and I didn’t see them as I drove away.

Shortly after I got to work, I got a notification from the same girl that posted about them on Nextdoor, and she said they were seen on Tanglewood. I sent the girls after them, and I guess they had some help from at least one neighbor who straight-up carried Muad’Dib over to Summer. Stilgar had to be fetched from the end of the road, and for some reason Summer thought it would be best to load him into the Model Y instead of just have him follow her home in the rain.

I did a bunch of Disney planning and took care of some things I’d been needing to do. Keith found me an old pallet that I could take home to mend the fence, and I eventually left that ghost town. I fed the fish and then went home to clean up. Julie called to settle a bet with Kevin, and my blog came to her rescue. I told Kevin I would have erased his name for half the price of losing the bet. Maybe now Julie understands the value I get from journaling everything.

Eaddie was out with friends, so I asked Summer if she wanted to go try the pork steaks at Ridgewood Brothers. As we were leaving, we noticed she had another crack spreading up her windshield from a pretty big impact spot in the bottom-right, so we added that to her air conditioning service appointment. Grant was at the restaurant running a full crew for a mostly empty dining room. The pork steak was good, but I don’t think ours were glazed properly when they were served. If they were, then we still needed more because they were pretty dry. Of course they were huge, thick cuts of lean meat that had been smoked and then finished on a grill. They weren’t overly tough or difficult to eat, but they would have been great with a cup of glaze for dipping.

When we got back home, we decided to take the dogs out for a walk to my parents’ house. It went pretty well until we got there and I let Stilgar off of his leash. Summer just dropped Muad’Dib’s, and he took off after a cat under the porch. I got angry and she tried to just leave me there alone, which made me even angrier. I got her to come back and help, and she saw Muad’Dib gnawing on something under the porch. We were worried it was the cat, but we were pretty sure it was just the leash. When they finally came back out, I hosed a bunch of mud off of the leash and gave them some water before we headed back home.

She went to the bedroom after that, and I took care of some things before eventually getting to bed myself. I’m constantly sleep deprived, angry, frustrated, depressed, and just about any other negative emotion there is. I’m hoping a vacation will help, but I’m already stressed about traveling, and worried about what the dogs will get into while we’re gone. Summer informing me that she’s paying Noah to come house-sit while we’re gone only made me feel worse about the situation, and angry that she didn’t consult me first. Telling me that she was going to “set some ground rules” was not the consolation she thought it might be.

I’ll have them longer.

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Nobody Asked You Patrice!

I caught the dogs in the act of digging under the fence this morning, and in spite of being in trouble, they were super excited to see me. I gave them some pets and treats with the hopes that they would stick around, and tried to cover up their start of a new hole, but they got out again while I was in the shower. As I was walking out the door, a new neighbor stopped to let us know. Summer woke up and got the front door just as I was discovering they weren’t in the back yard. Luckily we were able to get them back inside without too much trouble, but they were pretty high-energy.

There was no time for breakfast, and traffic was stupid. I got to work a little over 10 minutes late, but again, the place was mostly a ghost town. I submitted my vacation request form, though technically my contract will be over by then, and they don’t have to hire me again. I’m playing this one by ear. I ended up in Blake’s office and chatted with him for a while, and then a guy came in with three big bags of sweet corn for the school. I eventually got some for the office, and then took some home at the end of the day.

Other than that, my big human interaction was when Troy stopped by and actually sat down and chatted with me a little bit. I thought that was kind of neat, but I’m sure he mostly just needed a break from the heat. I eventually headed home and fed the fish.

I got to the house just as Summer was finishing up dinner. She thought it would be a good idea to cut up the leftover dried chicken and form patties with egg and bread crumbs. They were even dryer than the chicken was by itself, and it made no sense at all. I rolled the grill out and cooked some corn while I played with the dogs for a while. It sprinkled with a little thunder in the distance, and the dogs stuck around on the porch. It was really nice that we didn’t have to hunt for them at all today.

I wish they were trained well enough to take to work.

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Fencing Duel

The dogs were out again, but just in the front yard a couple doors down. They came home quickly and easily, but I lost sight of Muad’dib and thought he got right back out. This time they had moved some pretty large concrete blocks, so we’re just going to have to find a way to repair the fence properly. I went back out to try and find him, and Summer had to go to work for a bit. I went in to make some coffee and have a little bit of food, and when she got back home, she decided she wanted to do some yard work in the middle of the afternoon. I had to ride to my parents’ house for some string trimmer line, but then the cap on her trimmer shattered and the reel wouldn’t stay in. Muad’dib ended up coming out from under the porch later, so he must have just been hiding from the sun for a while.

Eaddie’s afternoon plans were cancelled, so we all got cleaned up and decided to go do some shopping for swimsuits and dog stuff. We shared some food at Zaxby’s first for a late lunch, and then went to Walmart, JCPenney, T.J.Maxx, and Ross. I just happened to see a 100-foot bundle of rope for like eight bucks and decided to buy that to make a couple leashes myself. I may start the Salty Dogs Pet Company after all.

By that time, we were ready to get home, so we stopped by the old house to feed the fish and then picked up some Domino’s for dinner. We had the bright idea to try and walk the dogs to my parents’ house where we would eat, but of course they weren’t in the yard when we got back. Fortunately they were just at the other end of the road talking to those neighbors, but Stilgar was the only one that would willingly run home. He was soaked from head to tail. Muad’dib had no interest in following me home, but eventually ran to the girls.

We loaded the food into the Pathfinder and the girls started to walk the dogs over, but just barely made it to the end of the street before we decided to put them in the truck. The dogs did super well for that really being their first group walk. Only Stilgar had walked with me in the past, and he does spectacularly.

Dad was home by the time we got there, and we ended up eating outside in the mosquitoey dark. The dogs sat quietly watching us eat, which made me really suspect that I’d stolen somebody’s dogs. There’s no way we’re that lucky to have found dogs that are just naturally that well behaved. We eventually went back home so we could patch the fence again, and then I brushed the dogs with the new grooming kit I got from Amazon. Both the rake and the brush I tried worked perfectly, which was also a surprise since I got the cheapest set I could find.

The girls went to bed pretty quickly. I stayed up with the dogs for a bit, and went back out again when they started barking along with the neighbors’ dogs, but then it was off to bed so I could get up early and smoke some ribs.

Salty dog and frog clip strip!

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Puppy Wrangler

I woke up pretty early, and the dogs were out in the front yard, so I brought them back in and found where they had dug a big hole and broken a part of the fence to get through. There wasn’t a whole lot I could do, but I put some stuff in front of it and went back inside and finished up some leftovers and laid down for a little longer. Eaddie eventually got up and went to meet some friends that would eventually be coming over to the house.

I eventually had to get cleaned up so I could meet with a guy from Nivo Solar. Summer came home early and was making a cheesecake when he showed up in the afternoon. I went outside to talk with him for a bit, and as I suspected, our roofline would be sub-optimal for a solar installation. I really didn’t want panels on the roof though, just because of the structure issues we’ve already had, plus the possibility of having to move panels around if the roof ever needed repairs. He scheduled another meeting for Monday since he was going to have to rework the design of the array.

I went to my parents’ house later in the evening for dinner since Eaddie and her friends had gone out to eat and Summer wasn’t hungry. The dogs spent most of the afternoon next door with our neighbor Suzanne, since she was out working in the yard. They came back when I called once, though Stilgar needed some help squeezing his belly under the fence. They got out another time or two, and at one point got stuck in the void between us and our back-yard neighbors. I rode the Onewheel around to Ridgewood to bring them back home, but they got distracted by Nick and Jessica’s dogs as they were walking the neighborhood. Summer came out with a leash to help me, but by that time Jessica had already turned around to help me walk them back a little ways toward the house.

The night seemed to drag on a bit, and I was exhausted. I should have gone to sleep early, but instead I ended up trying to clean up our clogged printer some more. I’d love to sleep, but there’s just too much to do.

Maybe some day I’ll get to take a morning walk with these dummies.

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Playbreak

I slept fairly hard last night, and woke up to the girls talking about the escaped dogs again. I took the Onewheel, but found Stilgar two houses down, coming out of a storm drain. He came over, and then walked off into the neighbor’s yard and laid down in their inflatable kiddie pool. I didn’t notice at first, but Muad’dib was inside their fence playing with two of their big dogs. After I took Stilgar home, he got out on his own and followed me home as well. They just wanted to get out and play and explore.

I got back in and made a couple bagels for Eaddie and myself, and then I hooked up an old printer and started messing with it. It would confidently print blank pages all day long, so I figure the print heads were just completely clogged. We had to get Eaddie to band camp though, so we drove separately and printed a form at Superfast before meeting with Eaddie at Tech to check her in.

Summer wanted La Huerta for lunch, so we ate and then headed back home so she could do some work. I was absolutely exhausted and kept dozing off on the couch while I waited for her. Then she made a comment about soaking in the tub, which upset me because I had told her we would go to see Dad for Father’s Day when she was done. She said she was waiting on me, but I was the one doing absolutely nothing while waiting on her. I was tired, but it still felt like another day wasted because she couldn’t get her priorities right.

We eventually made it to my parents’ house, and Mom was prepping bánh xèo. Dad was outside finishing some mowing and then took a swim. Summer knew I wanted to swim as well, but hadn’t considered the fact that she lost her swimsuit and has refused to find another one. We ended up just waiting for Mom to finish making dinner, but then Summer had to go to work for an after-hours team meeting just before we started eating.

Dad eventually took me home after dinner, and Stilgar was in the front yard. He ran up to us, but I didn’t see Muad’dib right away. Dad went home and I got on the Onewheel with a leash to try and find him. I should have put Stilgar away first, but I thought he’d stick with me for a short ride. I didn’t figure Muad’dib had gotten far, and then I saw him across the street fussing at that neighbor’s dogs. He came to me and I got the collar and leash on him, but then he freaked out and started choking himself out as he jumped and yelped. He held a grudge against me the rest of the evening. I ended up taking the collar off of him thinking he’d behave better and just follow me home, but after choking himself, he didn’t want anything to do with me. The neighbor ended up coming out with a handful of treats to help me lure him home, and it was still a struggle.

I rode back to my parents’ house just before dark to borrow a staple gun so I could try and seal our gate for good. It was dark when I got home, but Summer pulled in right after me and was able to come out to help. Eaddie came home from band camp since she wasn’t staying on campus, and played with the dogs for a while. Summer was obviously the first to bed, and I eventually made it just before midnight.

The dogs have more friends than we do.