What a wonderful week this has been so far. I've taken the girls swimming at the pool in Thomasville, we've gone to see a movie "The Croods" at the Summer kid series. The girls have gone to school camp for the second time. And Daisy our beloved dog and I have been playing an interesting game regarding the fence in the back yard.
A little over a year ago, a LARGE pine tree fell in our back yard. It took out a portion of our chain link fence. My husband insisted that he would cut up the pine tree and fix the fence. Now a year later, yes I still have a pine tree in the back yard. The chain saw apparently stopped working as he was cutting up the tree... and no one had found time to fix the back of the fence. But for 11 months Daisy didn't notice that there was a whole in the fence where the tree had bent it. She didn't realize how easy it would be to leave the dog yard and run around free.
BUT, during the past month she has noticed and so we've begun our game. I barricade the hole as best I can. Then she devises ways to get around my barricade. She's dug holes, used her paws to move things, climbed onto cinder blocks to boost her jump out of the fence etc. It's been an interesting game. My barricades have typically worked for a hour or a day, but then Daisy finds a way around them.
First I moved an old bicycle in front of the fence, then our wheel barrow, an old ladder, a cinder block, branches from the old pine tree, lids to our sandboxes, etc....
And finally, I decided that I would take the "extra" portion of the chain link fencing that my husband had left in the corner of the dog yard and wrap it around my barricade. It worked! The extra fencing was the key, but I worried she'd lift that up, so I added partially filled paint cans to hold the fencing down.
As my barricade grew I kept thinking of a children's book that I love. It is entitled And I mean it, Stanley! In the book a child is building a sculpture out of junk and talking to Stanley as he/she builds the sculpture. Stanley isn't listening or so the child thinks. So he/she keeps telling Stanley about it, but going on to say "Don't you look, don't you even peek." At the end of the story, Stanley a large shaggy dog comes tearing through the fence that he/she is on the other side and knocks down the child's sculpture and covers the child with kisses. The child is thrilled!
So as I've built my barricade I've thought about how Daisy and I are playing a game like the child and Stanley! It truly is a really beautiful thing!
STANLEY!
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A little over a year ago, a LARGE pine tree fell in our back yard. It took out a portion of our chain link fence. My husband insisted that he would cut up the pine tree and fix the fence. Now a year later, yes I still have a pine tree in the back yard. The chain saw apparently stopped working as he was cutting up the tree... and no one had found time to fix the back of the fence. But for 11 months Daisy didn't notice that there was a whole in the fence where the tree had bent it. She didn't realize how easy it would be to leave the dog yard and run around free.
BUT, during the past month she has noticed and so we've begun our game. I barricade the hole as best I can. Then she devises ways to get around my barricade. She's dug holes, used her paws to move things, climbed onto cinder blocks to boost her jump out of the fence etc. It's been an interesting game. My barricades have typically worked for a hour or a day, but then Daisy finds a way around them.
First I moved an old bicycle in front of the fence, then our wheel barrow, an old ladder, a cinder block, branches from the old pine tree, lids to our sandboxes, etc....
As my barricade grew I kept thinking of a children's book that I love. It is entitled And I mean it, Stanley! In the book a child is building a sculpture out of junk and talking to Stanley as he/she builds the sculpture. Stanley isn't listening or so the child thinks. So he/she keeps telling Stanley about it, but going on to say "Don't you look, don't you even peek." At the end of the story, Stanley a large shaggy dog comes tearing through the fence that he/she is on the other side and knocks down the child's sculpture and covers the child with kisses. The child is thrilled!
So as I've built my barricade I've thought about how Daisy and I are playing a game like the child and Stanley! It truly is a really beautiful thing!
STANLEY!
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