The new Houdini

On Saturday Maria, Abby, Todd and I went to UNC's spring Blue/White game in Chapel Hill. After a mere 20 minutes into the game, I received a phone call from Kerry (I was dogsitting at her house for the weekend). She said a neighbor of hers called because he saw Emma, her dog, running around the neighborhood (Emma and Bailey had both been contained on the screened-in porch - at least the used-to-be screened-in-porch - due to Emma's gastrointestinal distress and the slight likelihood that the realtor might need to show the house to a potential buyer).

I assumed that if Emma was out, Bailey was out. As previously posted, a Bailey escape = disastrous stress, especially in his old age. Likewise, Kerry was worried about Emma attacking neighborhood dogs. The vibes were NOT good.

I drove Maria's van back to Kerry's house (cursing Emma vehemently the entire way) only to find her on the path behind the house, happily enjoying a good scratch courtesy of a kind neighbor. Bailey was (thank heaven) still contained on the aforementioned - and formerly screened-in - porch. The luck of that was mind boggling, because I'm certain that had Bailey had a bit more spring in his step he would've escaped, too.

Emma's destruction to the door was pretty brutal. The screen-door had five panels - one large panel at the top with 4 smaller panels at the bottom. She'd already broken through the bottom left panel on a previous occasion, hence the baby gate and chair that were used to block that mode of escape.

My best guess is that something set her off so she jumped up onto the chair and dove through the top panel of the screen door. The entire top panel was ripped away and the center wood pane was very badly damaged, if not completely rendered useless.

My surprise at this feat stems from the fact that Emma's been favoring her back left leg for quite a few months now - she never puts any weight on it. For her to get on that chair and dive (break) through the upper screen is impressive.

I feel I must mention that she is favoring said leg even more post-escape. Serves her right? The jury is out on that one. I have a hard time faulting dogs for what is in their nature.

I would've posted damage photos, but lacked my camera cable for download. Weekend photos of Abby and Bailey should be posted soon. In addition, I hope to post an update regarding Zoe's pending Addison's disease diagnosis. Crossing fingers!!!