Happy Arf-Friday....

 

Two quickies...  Victor, that's impossible.  At your age, one is probably not eve.. (STOP!)

I'm talking dog stories.....

Story one...

Nascar's 'racetrack'.  Nascar is a wonderful Miniature Schnauzer I had the privilege of living with for a few years. Two animal lovers, a huge back, side yard, Nascar, and the want for freedom.  Long chain, tree. Nope. He'd circle around and around and before you know it, he'd whittled down 30 feet or running space to 2 by running around (and around) the tree.  Attention to, off leash, we'll watch him, voice command, he'll stay.  Enter squirrel.  Enter squirrel running three blocks away, followed by Nascar.  Nope, that ain't gonna work either............so.

Friend bought this invisible electronic fence kinda thing. Ya had this big circular electronic thing that you placed in the center of the area you wanted to contain the pooch in.  In this case, it happened to be the bathroom, and from there, it 'cast a spell' (electronics) that would allow Nascar to go roughly a hunnerd feet in any (circular) direction before said electronic jolt.  Perfect,  Edge of the back yard, edge of the side yards, right up to the street in front.

Receiver, shock thingy collar placed on Nascar's collar.  "Now Nascar, ya get too close, it'll zap ya!" Training. Over 100 little white flags placed about the yard in circular fashion, all placed, trial, error and shock ("OUCH, DAMNIT) by my friend.  Don't feel too sorry for her, for it was I that had to, every  week, pull up (and replace) 100+ damn white flags every time I mowed.  With leash on, Nascar 'learned' his I-ain't-gonna-get-zapped' limits.  Time for, how'd Elsa put it?  "Let it go" (No leash test.) He did pretty good. Tepid at first, yeah, mebbe zapped, yelped a couple times. In fairness to said friend, she tested the 'zap' personally to make sure it wasn't too much for his little bitty body.

In time, he knew EXACTLY how far, how close to the zap, he could go. In fact, we even took the battery thing off his leash and he still stayed in the yard.

Nascar loved walks, as did I, but, due to training, picking up, moving the 100+ damn flags to mow (and replacing them) we hadn't been on a walk for awhile.  I got the leash out for us to go. Enter, EXCITEMENT, turning circles, peed a bit here, he was READY!  I took his battery thingy off making sure he wouldn't get jolted, and we headed for the Canterbury path.  Just as I got to the edge of the driveway by the street, my right arm went dead straight, this 9 pound dog stopped in his tracks and I damn near fell over! Rote, he obeyed the zap area, I laughed, commended him, picked him up, carried him onto the street, then we went on to chase squirrels, poop (probably twice even though I only had one bag, yada)

Story #2.  Beloved (sadly, now departed) dog loving friends. Their pooch was IT. He too had become an escape artist, so.......... again, thanks to electronics (there are electronics for everything aren't there? You can turn the heat up on you BBQ grill via remote from the sofa, you can be on the beach in Cancun and see who's at your door (RING) back home, yada.).. they bought this GPS thingy, that, if he DID get outta the yard, they could track his every move via the GPS thingy attached to his collar, AND, they'd get a text message, automatically when he managed to get to the other side of the fence. and continuing texts with his GPS coordinates.

They were going to the store. Just as they backed out, "UH OH, HE'S OUT!" (Text to their phone.) "TURN HERE.. .HE'S ON THIS STREET!"  they turned again, "WE GOTTA BE CLOSE, HE'S NOW ON THIS STREET"...Frantically, this went on for mebbe a mile or so... Every turn they made, pooch did too.

Not long after, my buddy finally caught sight of the pooch in the rearview mirror. He was........ drum roll... in the backseat of their car.

Life, when the tail wags the human.

Love, Victurd