Fur-babies II

[draggonlaady]

Sally was brought to the Humane Society where I worked in 1999. She was not a stray (for once), she was an owner release. When they brought her in, she crawled under my chair and stayed there the entire time we were checking her in. Never even looked back up at the people who brought her in.

The reason for release? She kept climbing out of her kennel. When I asked if they had put a top on the kennel, they said no. Tried her on a cable run instead? no. Had any training? no. Ever get taken out of the freaking kennel? no.

Now, at the time, I was living with my cousin and her dog in a camp trailer on our grandparents' place, because we could not find a place to rent with pets. The dog I already had, Tipper, was at my parents' place. Obviously, I needed another dog like I needed someone to kick me in the neck. So I did not immediately drag home the 8 month old hound pup. She stayed at the shelter for a month. In that entire time, only 1 person even asked about her. But she was one of the easiest dogs to work with in the kennels--never jumped on me, never tried to shove out the door past me, never started fights at feeding time. So when her name came up on the euthanasia list, I shuffled her card back into the book. And when it came up on the euthanasia list again, I took her home. To the camp trailer. Where we managed to live for another 2 months. "Sally" striking me as a terribly inapt name, I changed it just a bit, and named her after a comic-book bounty hunter.

Rally went everywhere with me during those 2 months, because I didn't have any other place to put her--she came to work, kenneled in the break room, or was in my car unless she was in the house or trailer with me. So as far as I knew, she was a sweet, well-meaning, if a bit over-enthusiastic pup.

Until we finally found a place to rent. And put up a fence for the dogs to be in the yard. And then the trouble began...
She opens gates, goes under fences, goes over fences, goes THROUGH fences, opens the house door, breaks 3 cable runs. Finally convince her not to climb the fence by way of borrowing my grandpa's fence charger (intended for keeping cattle in). Then she learned to open the canopy on my truck. She slips collars, choke chains, and harnesses.

It has been an ongoing battle of escalation ever since. I patch the fence where she escapes, build it higher or electrify it, and she discovers how to pull the siding off the garage and go through the wall. I have bailed her out of 3 more Humane Societies, the Pullman shelter 4 times. She's come home on her own or been picked up by friendly people who called me to come get her countless more times. Spent an evening in a nice gent's garage waiting for me to get off school. He thought she looked hungry, so he gave her a spagetti dinner.

She believes in taking the rest of the pack with her when she goes running. On one great occasion, I was woken by a neighbor pounding on my door. When I stagger out to answer, he points down the road and says "your dog and goat just took off." Seems Rally-dear had opened the house door, letting herself and the cat out, and then opened the yard gate, letting herself and the goat out into the trailer court.

She does not like thunder. She has been known to disregard the hot-wire on the fence and take off anyway during thunderstorms or fireworks. She has also been known to let herself into houses on such occasions, and not always mine. I met one of my current neighbors shortly after moving here, when they were surprised by a strange hound appearing in their kitchen. They attempted to tie her on the porch while waiting for me to come get her. She promptly slipped her collar. When I got there, the nice man was sitting on the porch in the rain, holding onto her, because it was the only way he could keep her there.

She is grey up to her eyes now, and considerably calmer than when she was a pup. She is a great trainer--I have had minimal effort training new dogs since I got Rally; I just let her teach them how to be. Unfortunately, this also extends to teaching some of them to go over fences... Ah well. Gotta have a little excitement in life, right?