C: PAIN ON THE LIVING ROOM FLOOR


It is cliche to talk about stepping on Legos with bare feet.  

Those of us who have young children or grandchildren know how excruciating that can be.

 I have no little people in my household these days, so one might think I would be free of such dangers...not so!

 You know what hurts just as much?  Stepping on the shard of a deer femur. In fact, it feels very much like stepping on a Lego. It happened to me just this morning. 

My latest, and third, Belgian Malinois “Lefty” is truly a country dog.  We live pretty far off the main road, down a long dirt driveway.  But, still, we wanted him contained.  We have always used our fenced backyard to contain our dogs—even Mailinois, but Lefty kept escaping.

Our fence is four feet pickets, and it has worked very well in the past, except for  our Daisy, who was a digger.  Every once in a while Son and I would have to go out and fill the escape hatches she had dug under our fence with rocks.  

When Lefty and his brother Poncho (now deceased) began getting out, Son and I assumed they were doing the same a Daisy had done and would inspect the ground-level edges of our big back yard.  We would find low spots and be amazed that these dogs would squeeze through.  We would do the rock fills that were so useful with Daisy.

But, we’d still find the dogs out front.  We had made a premature diagnosis.  I even posted a picture about Poncho's crime of digging on Facebook (see right).  But he had been wrongfully charged.

As I was driving up to the house one day, my two Malinois sailed over the fence to greet me, never touching the top of the four-foot pickets.  I knew I was in trouble.  They came back in the same way--over the fence.  We have since extended the fence to six feet, which did no good whatsoever.  An estimate for fencing that would keep them in (“coyote rollers” or inwardly-curved extensions across the top) proved too costly to afford.  The fence is simply not a barrier.

All that to say this: The dog roams at will when he is not in the house. Now that he is neutered and no longer seeking female companionship, he stays close to home.  However, it gives him opportunity to scout the nearby woods for treasures.  We have come out in the morning to find a deer head in our front yard—I real trophy, I suppose.  The photo to the left was taken just off my front steps.  These random deer bones are commonplace.  He knows they are verboten in the house, but he’s a rebel.  This one sneaked past us.

I wonder why we put up with all we do for our dogs.  He’s a great dog, good companionship, and I guarantee you that no intruder is going to get near me in the night without going through him (he sleeps on my bed with watchful ears cocked).

Handsome, Isn't He?
The house and acreage is for sale. When the right buyer comes along, Lefty and I will move closer to town, and I wonder how he will manage the city life he has never known.  Any house I move to must have a large back yard, and coyote rollers will definitely be placed across the top of a privacy fence to keep him safe from the traffic he knows nothing about.  

Still, I wonder about more than his physical safety when we move…I probably will have to get him a rescue companion.  He is a smart dog and will need stimulation once he no longer is occupied by keeping bears off the place.

He’s worth all this planning and care…I just wish he’d keep his deer bones picked up!

-- C

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