Rico the Magician

Our dog, Rico, is a regular Houdini. He specializes in getting out of locked cages in record time. The picture below is a picture, albeit not a very good one, of our kennel and run. We bought the kennel and run because the dog trainer told me the dog would be much happier sleeping outside, that it's better for all of us to have our space, that we needed a safe and secure place to lock Rico up when we were gone or even just for periods of time during the day when we didn't want him bothering us. That all sounded really good to me so I got online and found one on Trade Me that was cheaper than buying one new. The price was half of a new one, but then I had to add back in half again to ship it, but still we were saving money. The kennel arrived and Dugald obligingly put it together - slightly wrong, but we thought it would work.
You'll notice in the picture that the run part is slightly elevated. Well the first time it got put together that part was accidently upside down, but we didn't think it would matter. It did, Rico had enough room to squeeze under the kennel and out. So we lined up heavy potted plants like the ones you see in the picture. He still managed to push those out of the way and get out. So we fixed the kennel, major pain but oh well. That night Rico got out of the gate at the front of the run which was tied shut with a chain, he got the knot out of the chain. So we bought a padlock only to find that the chain was too narrow for the lock to get through. Duh. So, next day, new chain, with padlock. This time Rico managed to throw all of his weight against the side of the run you can see in the picture (the other side is up against a brick retaining wall) and managed to make a gap on the side between the kennel and run, and get out. So, I put the potted plants back to make it a little harder for him to push out the run. Last night, he went out the top. The run has a cover, but there are very small gaps on each side of the kennel. I would never, in a million years, have thought he could get through them and I still wouldn't believe it if I didn't see him do it myself. I am SO over him!

Here he is looking all pleased. I won't post a picture of me with bags under my eyes from all the nights he's woken me up in the middle of the night barking having escaped yet again. And I can't even bear to think how much all of this has cost us and it doesn't even work. Grrrr.

On the bright side, here are the girls waking Ellie from her afternoon nap. Aren't they cute? We are in the process of planning Katie's birthday party, all very exciting stuff. She's so happy to have made enough friends to warrant a party. She either wants a swimming party or a skating party so I will be looking into both options this afternoon.

As for the cat I wrote about yesterday - it's a rather sad story! She/he had been just sitting in our yard for a few hours without moving when a neighbor stopped by to return some dishes to me. I mentioned the cat to her and she offered to take it to the vet to see if it had a microchip. I thought that was a grand idea and off they went. Well, it turns out the poor thing was hurt! The vet was able to find the owner because the cat did have a chip and they think it was hit by a car and was in shock. Poor kitty, now I feel badly for having sprayed it! Hopefully it will recover and at least it is getting some treatment and pain relief so I'm grateful to Bev for handling it for me.

That's all that is happening here . . . I'll write again in a day or two!