I told you all about finding our dog Goodboy, not far from our home along a country road in Florida. Of all the stories I have yet to share about this dog the best was his ways of escaping his dog run and pen. During the day I kept him in a big fenced area so he could run and play.
However, one day he was suddenly out of his fenced area and we could not figure out at first how he got out until we retraced his steps. First thing we noticed he was wet which meant he had gone swimming. The second clue was his big cow bone was laying outside his runway. That meant he had been to his dogpen to get it, but how was the question. We put him back in his fenced area and watched. He waited till he thought we were not looking and then put his nose under the bottom of the stock fence wire and lifted up the fence and squirmed underneath the wire. So he was found out and the story of the escape was solved. Goodboy, wanted to go swimming and once that was done he went and got his big cow bone and attempted to get back under the fence from the outside. But since it was on a hill the return trip did not work and so he got caught.
We patched the fence by putting wire underground thinking the problem was solved. This big dog managed to squeeze out again through an opening in the fence that a beagle could crawl through, by stretching out his hind legs and squirming and pushing and changing directions back and forth until he got through, not under, the fence. It was a real chore just trying to keep Goodboy penned in.
His second best escape came after many years of owning him, and might be the best ever. I had him in a chainlink fence about 7 feet high with no top. He had a large tall doghouse in the pen. Goodboy, was very smart and was often seen looking and almost planning the next escape.
Then again, one day he was outside his pen. By now that pen had been wired solid from top to bottom. We had gone with chainlink, cause no dog could squeeze through those holes, and we felt at the time it was escape proof, until he got out.
This was a big puzzle and it was as if he knew it and was not going to share this secret with anyone. We checked and rechecked the pen, it was impossible there was no way out that we could find. We were baffled, until one day by accident the escape was seen.
This big 80 pound dog squeezed in a tiny 8 inch narrow gap between his doghouse and the fence, and pushed his back against the doghouse and climbed up the chainlink fence with his feet. He slid his back up the side of the doghouse until the top of the roof was met, and then somehow threw himself over the peak of the doghouse roof and calmly jumped over the 7 foot high fence. If we had not seen it personally we would have never believed that it was even possible. Goodboy was an amazing dog and escape artist. The 7 foot fence was made 9 feet high and the doghouse was moved to the center of the pen. The great escapes stopped and we breathed a sigh of relief.
When I was fairly young, we had a dog that used to get out of the yard and we could never figure out how. One day I happened to be outside when he decided he was going to take himself for a walk around the neighborhood. Turned out he had figured out how to lift the latch on the gate with his nose and then pushing it open was nothing.
Thanks for sharing. It is truely amazing how quickly dogs can learn new tricks and ways of escaping. I could hardly believe how Goodboy got out, and out with a scratch. A relative had a small dog that figured out how to climb chainlink fence by going to a corner of the pen and climbing out using both sides of the corner fence. That too was a bit unusual for a dog to do. Both of them would have won on that tv show "Funnyest Home Video's." Any more neat escapes out there?
Our biggest pet escape was one that lasted two months. Everyone was safe, but here is our story.
July fourth night we are headed out to take the kids to the fireworks. Looking forward to nice evening out.
Fast forward a bit to the end of the night when we are arriving home. As soon as we pull into the yard we realize one of us has forgotten to close the door to the house. Hmm, that cant be good. Three cats, three dogs.
We immediately see two cats sitting so casually on the rail of our steps. Almost as if they do this often, which they don't mind you. Then we spot one dog running to us from the back yard, our trusted Yellow Lab is so happy to see us he comes blazing from the backyard and almost runs us over.
So far, two cats and one dog has greeted us on are arrival home. Now we start to worry because we don't see any of our other pets around.
As soon as we head into the house, there are our two Bernese Mountain dogs laying on the floor as if nothing is happening. They decided a nap was better for them I guess.
Now we find one more cat sleeping on a bed, only one more cat to find. This is when our daughter see Lenny run away from the house in full sprint. He must have been spooked from never being an outdoors cats before.
We searched until midnight, in the rain. and two days prior I had surgery on my left elbow so I was not working all that well in the shrubs and bushes.
Sadly, two months later we had just about given up on Lenny. We live in an area with a lot of Fisher cats. After two months of Lenny being gone I was out putting the trash outside and I see a flash of black and white run by. It was him!
The kids and I found some food, and a blanket and went on a walk in the woods. This time he came right to us. He gladly ate the food!
We brought him inside and he seemed so happy, he wouldn't stop talking to us all afternoon. We took him to the vet for a checkup. he was a bit thin but otherwise very good.
We still have all three dogs, and three cats. And we check the door more than ever when we leave the house now.
That is our story of our animal escapes, glad they are all home and doing well.
jowjo, Wow! were you ever lucky they did not wander farther away from home. Usually when they take strolls out the door the big wide world gets their attention and they follow one thing after another until they get lost or found by someone else, or hit by a car.
Since I lived on an island along a river in Florida, I was always concerned about an alligator getting Goodboy, as he loved chasing the waves as they hit the shoreline. A neighbor told me they had lost a little dog to a gator that way. Also, even though we lived about a half-a-mile from the main road, there was always the danger of him getting hit by a car. Many times I found him over on the other side of the oxbow (old river) not far from the road, thankful he never got hit.
I have lost a pair of parakeets and a turtle many years ago.
The pair of parakeets figured out how to lift the cage door with their mouths. One morning they were just gone with the cage door wide open. They were never found.
We had to reinforce the cage door with steel wires for the next pair of birds to make sure the same wouldn't happen again. Then the next pair somehow figured out how to "thin out" the cage bars by grind their mouths against it. The cage bars were made of wood, so eventually a few of the wooden cage bars became thinner and thinner before finally broke. We got a new cage for them with steel bars.
The turtle I had also escaped without a trace. I had it for years. It was never found.
I find the ability of some animals to be amazing in being able to figure out the means of escaping their cages or pens. Even snakes can become escape artists given half a chance. Sometimes when owners under-estimate the strength of a python or ability of a rattlesnake to climb walls. I have seen pythons in cages to small or weak for the size of the snake and seen them pop the lids off with ease. Maybe that is how many have escaped to the outdoors and into the Everglades, in South Florida.
Cats are quick and once outside can be very difficult to catch. My mother's cat runs for the door when opened, and if lucky enough to get outside he hides under the car where he knows we can not reach him. It becomes a game of cat & mouse, so to speak, in tricking him to come out from under the car so he can be caught. I often wonder if when they climb trees and telephone poles, and then cry as if they can't get down, if it is just a game to make their owners go crazy with worry and concern in attempting rescue. Even fire departments are called to the rescue in some cases and when down they act very satisfied with all the trouble they have caused. Please share more stories of pet escapes.
Snakes are definitely great escape artists. I have heard the story of someone who kept a baby snake in a bottle. One morning he found the snake was missing while the bottle still had the cover on. The whole family was freaked out because they fear the snake might suddenly come out of nowhere when they least expect it.
Most pets who lack of attach to the owners will try to get away if give the chance. This usually happens with birds and reptiles. In some other cases they just got curious and try to go out for fun then lost their way home.
Back when I was a teenager living on my uncle's farm, I remember another great escape, in the mid-summer of 1972. My uncle was getting ready to go to the cattle auction and was trying to load a frisky young heifer in the back of his truck. She managed to knock him down and ran away into the woods. This young heifer had just been weaned off her mother and was barely eating hay or feed at the time of her escape. We hunted though the woods and neighbors fields, but could not find her. Summer moved into winter and in the Spring of 73, the Fish & Game Commission called to say they had found a cow in the woods. We went out to met them and found this runaway heifer. What she had lived on is unknow, but this animal was very short with stunted growth, but had a good set of sharp horns on her head. We loaded her on the pickup truck and brought her home, and named her "Orphan Anne." she began gentle and was the farm pet for many years.
i used to have a rat called smuge, one day he jumped off the sofa and made a dash for the fire place, we had a gas fire and when we went to inspect if he was there, there was no sign of him, but there was a small hole inside the wall behind the fire. we never had the fire on for weeks, we never seen him for weeks, we tried everything to tempt him out, cheese, chocolate nothing,,,, then about 2weeks after his escape i was watching tv and felt tickeling on my foot, looked down too see my smuge, i picked him up and smothered him in kisses. gave him a good feed and he lived hapily ever after. till he was a wee old rat man.
My rat terrier is such an escape artist! We used to put him and my Mom's dog out front(where it is fenced) when we went out in the back(not fenced) when my son went to play. One day I was sitting next to my son's pool with him in it, and Kipper flipping out wanting in the back with us. All of a sudden, Kipper jumped, and started CLIMBING the 6 foot fence. I don't know how, but I always thought he was half rabbit or something because he can jump 4 feet in the air. And before we could move, he was over the fence, ran around the pool 3 times then he was down the street. Had to chase him. Everyone says wait, he will come back. Nope, not Kipper! He will keep going til he's tired, then he can't find his way back. I have a friend down the street when he notices Kipper runnning, will take out his pitbull, one bark from the pitbull, Kipper drops to the ground and doesn't move, so I can get Kipper and bring him home.
My best friend in high school had two pet rats, Luke and Obi-Wan. Obi-Wan, true to his name, was a sedate white and grey hooded rat who didn't do much more than run on his exercise wheel and squeak for treats. Luke, on the other hand, was the real Phantom Menace!
Their cage was a two-level wire frame, converted from an old rabbit hutch. The only opening was a square on the front of the hutch, held shut with a hook-and-eye latch. There was a removable drawer on the bottom for changing out their bedding.
My friend noticed she seemed to be losing jewelry from the box on top of her dresser, but figured she was either misplacing it or that one of her sisters had been sneaking the jewelry out while she wasn't around. It was beginning to start some major family drama. She even confronted her sisters about the missing jewelry, only to have them become very defensive and confused!
Sure enough, after three weeks of missing earrings and necklaces, she comes back to her room after getting a drink in the middle of the night and spots Luke squirming into the cage through a narrow gap chewed under the edge of the hutch and the removable drawer, dragging a silver chain along in his mouth!
He had a heap of her jewelry hoarded under a pile of shavings in the corner of the cage. She told me, when she opened the cage and started pulling the jewelry out, he sat in the opposite corner squeaking with indignance the entire time.
She and her father did a thorough repair job on the hutch, sealing over the gnawed portions, and she even added a second level of wire to the bottom of the hutch to prevent any further escape attempts.
When my kids were little, we used to have hamsters and we enjoyed watching them a lot. They were always little escape artists and would be constantly looking for a way out of their cage. We had one hamster in an old-fashioned round-top bird cage, and it had the little latching door in the front that slid up and down. Naturally, a bird couldn't get out of that, but the hamster soon discovered it and learned how to slide the door up enough to wiggle under it and get out. We would put him in, and he would run right back to the door and climb out. When he had this down to a science; we turned the cage around, so the door was now against the wall, and the side where he had been escaping from now had NO door ! !
Well, that poor little fellow about went crazy, and had us all rolling around and laughing at him as he went back and forth, shaking every single bar on that side of the cage trying to find the lost door and get out. You could actually see the consternation in that little hamster face ----- he knew that door had to be there, and could not understand why he couldn't find it anymore.
We had such a great time watching him, and would do this every now and then, just because it was so much fun to watch the little Houdini Hamster trying to escape !
There was a time when i was about to get the laundry and i didn't notice that i forget to properly lock our gate! Our rottweiler then seized the oppurtunity to escape! My brother then scouted the whole subdivision looking for him!
Several years ago, I had a little chihauhau that would actually climb over a 6ft chain link fence. I had cats and I assume he had watched them hook their paws in the chain link and over they would go. He figured out how to do it and would follow the cats over the fence and then tag along with them as they explored the neighborhood. It was a common sight,,, the cats out front and the little dog trailing behind them.
What a great story, Evelyn ! ! I could just visualize that little chihuahua climbing the fence as I was reading your story.
When we lived in Boise, Idaho; I had a little longcoat chihuahua that was a great climber, too. He could (and did) climb over any fence we had when he wanted out.
I think that they are such a strong, yet lightweight little dog, and so very agile, that it is easier for them to climb out than it would be for a larger dog.
Although Penny (Sadie's mother or grandmother) used to do a pretty darn good job of climbing over fences, as well, and he was a heavy bodied little dog.
All it took was one thunder-boomer, and she would climb just about any fence that was between her and the house. She wanted to be inside and under that bed when a thunderstorm hit !
RE: Tell About Your Pets Best Great Escapes 