My Adventure

Saturday, mom was lying out on the back patio in her lounge chair. I was doing my usual patrol of the fenceline.
There was a stray cat sitting in a tree over our back fence.
Damn thing wouldn't leave!
I even tried throwing myself against the fence to intimidate it. It did't work! All that did was cause me to knock a board loose.
It went flying through the yard.
So, I went through the fence. You, see, cat? I've got you now! Oops!
I got halfway through and stopped, unsure whether to push through all of the brush on the other side or back up into my own yard where I belong.
I might have even obeyed mom when she called for me to come back.
I think I would have if I hadn't heard my daddy yelling at me.
Instead, I went on into the yard behind ours and then I didn't know what to do. This wasn't a yard like any I'd been in. It was mostly water. So I just sat there, by the gap I'd made in the fence, waiting.
There was a white dog on the patio across from me. He just sat there, too.
Eventually, my mommy came. She says she threw some clothes on over her bikini, put on her shoew without socks and just walked until she found what she decided was the house behind ours, and rang the doorbell:

"Hi, I'm Jen; I live behind you. I think my dog is in your yard."

The girl who answerred the door was carrying her own little dog. She looked at mom funny for a second, then walked to her back window and looked out and said
"Oh, there she is. You're right."

Mom followed her through her living room, out the back door. There I was, still sitting there by the gap in the fence, looking rather puzzled. The neighbor dog (his name is Elvis) was still sitting, staring at me, also puzzled.

Turns out I'd found myself in a yard that was mostly swimming pool. Hadn't seen that before.

Mom told me "come here".
I complied right away.
I knew I was in trouble so I didn't even pull all the way home- I heeled quite nicely, if I do say so myself. Without my pinch collar.
Dad yelled alot when I got home. He really laid into mom about "fix the behavior. Fix that behavior or I will!"

We don't take much of that seriously. It isn't often that he decides to suddenly "participate" in anything involvoing our training or behavior. He won't make time to read the books mom is following or even learn to use the commands she chose to teach us.

What's he going to do when it's "his" dog, Leo that does something like this next time? I appreciate that he got in his car and drove around the block looking for me, but it's not really possible to be roaming free in the neighborhood when you can only break out of one yard and into another.

It's not OUR fault the morons who lived here before us and installed that fence put it together with drywall screws, instead of outdoor screws or wood screws.

My behavior really isn't that bad. I mean, when there's a stray cat (and there are alot of them) just sitting on my family's fence, not cooperating with my attempts to remove it- what do I do? Same goes for that damn squirrel. I can obey and behave just fine but every dog has her limits! Predator vs. prey, after all...