Maelie's High Adventures

I've come to discover, in a few moments of panic (one not-so-brief), that my little Maelie is a bolter.  Give her the opportunity, and she will run.  She will run fast, and she will run far, and the only way you will catch her is if she decides that she's done running.

I went over to Carol's to take her mail inside and check on the house today since she is at the Lake. I often take Little Runner on errands such as these, because she loves riding in the car.  And I had an idea.  I thought it might be fun for her to get some extra exercise and run in Carol's backyard.  It is fenced almost all the way around, so I devised a way to block off the three-foot section that is open.  I took a lawn chair and blocked it off so that she would have to jump over it to get through, and in addition to that, I sat in front of the lawn chair.  If she came my way, I would just grab her before she could get behind me and leap over the lawn chair.

So I let her go.  Everything was great, for the first couple of minutes.  She was running, she was exploring, she was traipsing through the flower beds, she was nosing under the shed to see what critters might be living there.  It was doggy heaven for a little while.

And then the little bugger found a hole, a hole in the chain-link fence that allowed her to sneak into the neighbor's yard!  THANK GOD that their yard is also fenced, or she would have been off like a jackrabbit.  I ran around the side of the house and found their gate open, but lucky for me, she didn't notice it.  After running their fence line and looking for a way out for a few minutes, she came to me.

Little Runner starts obedience class on Monday, and not a moment too soon.

(Chicago trip post coming soon.  I forgot my camera, so the only pictures I took were with Carol's, and, well, she's at the Lake.)