One reason for the reduced number of entanglement reports is that I shortened the tether so Buster can’t get over to his favorite place of entanglement.
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This is how I shortened the tether, I reduced the length by about 1/3.
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This is about the limit of how far he can go toward the oak tree and Nandinas.
This afternoon as I was walking Buster down by the creek and talking to Steve on the cell phone, the great blue heron arose from the water and flew up the creek to the north property line and turned right. What a big bird for such a tiny area. Buster started to give chase but I stopped him and we both just looked in amazement. Steve wondered what was happening I think.
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This is the widened door with Buster sniffing as usual. There is nothing in the yard that hasn’t been marked.
I mentioned that I didn’t think Buster could go 10 hours without getting tangled and so I was going to leave him in the utility room while we went to Ashville to pick up the grandchildren. I got worried that if something happened and we couldn’t get back in a reasonable time that Buster would be stuck and there was no body to call that could get in the house to help him so I decided to tether him outside instead and wonder of wonders, Buster was not tangled when we returned. ÂÂ
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Nothing much happened that hasn’t happened before on our morning walk. We had to go across the river to set up for a bridal shower for one of Marilyn’s great nieces and so I left Buster tethered and when I returned this afternoon he had the tether wrapped around a nandina bush beside the back porch. It was only a half wrap and he may have been able to get out of it, but I doubt it. Tomorrow we are going to Ashville to meet Korie and bring the grandchildren back home with us for the week. We will be gone 10 hours and that is a long time for that dog to stay untangled so we may leave him in the utility room all day. He normally stays in there from about 7:30pm until 7:15am so 10 hours shouldn’t be a problem for him unless something delays our return.
Oh, I should have mentioned this yesterday, the block masons have increased the size of the door to 64� like it was supposed to be in the first place.
This morning’s walk was considerably more exciting than I expected it to be. First we found a Blue Heron in the creek. I’ve never seen one there before. We saw it up stream from the garden path so we turned right to avoid spooking it.ÂÂ
The block mason and his helper were at the log house when we got that far around and another mason drove up before we got back on the driveway. The 2nd mason had his dog with him (do you see the exciting part yet?) It was peaceful, however, as the mason’s dog stayed in the car but Buster wanted very much to extend the stay at the log house instead of continuing our appointed rounds. There was no barking or growling, just an extremely strong pull on the leash. Buster also went suddenly deaf as he couldn’t hear me telling him to come on.When we got back to the creek again the heron was still there. We were approaching from upstream this time and it took off before we got too close. Gee whiz, how do they get through the trees with those tremendous wings? (That was the exciting part.)
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By this evening, the masons had laid 3 courses of block along the back of the log house. They were supposed to leave a place for a 5’ door, but it looks like they left a place for only a 4’ door. They spent most of yesterday shoveling mud off of the footings.
It was a quiet day at Woodthrush Woods. It rained all day yesterday so there were lots of puddles for Buster to have to decide whether to jump over or walk through. I had on waterproof shoes with mud on them from yesterday so I just sloshed on through hoping that the mud would wash off. The creek was not up as much as I expected, I guess that most of the rain soaked in because it was gentle and the ground was really dry. On our morning walk we came up behind the log house and the block mason was there digging a ditch to let the water drain off of the footings so he could get started laying the corners. I got all excited and took Buster for a mid morning walk as well to check on the progress, but the mason was gone and only the mortar mixer was left to show that he had even been there.
It was cold and windy so Buster spent most of the day in the utility room. He must have been bored because he chewed on one of those rawhide bones that I got at Sam’s and with which he would have nothing to do.
I let Buster run free at noon because I saw some squirrels in the side yard and I thought it would be fun to watch him chase them, but they had scattered before we got there and he saw something (or thought he did) down at the creek and took off like the proverbial flying mammal out of the place where nobody wants to go. I went back to the house to get the camera figuring that I would get a good action shot and there were plenty to be had except that I’m not fast enough. In just a few minutes he went flying through the woods in back covering about 3 lengths in a bound and went out of sight again in the privet hedge on the west side of the property down by the wet weather creek.  When he finally came back he just wanted to sleep in the utility room.
Remember the drip irrigation system I put in yesterday? It rained all day today. A nice gentle rain too. It rained about an inch. Buster was not interested at all in taking a walk by himself so I took him for his usual morning walk while the rain was still just a drizzle but it was enough to make water sling off of him when he shook himself. I suspected this all along, but I can now say for certain that wet dogs smell worse than dry dogs.
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Today I put in a drip irrigation system for the landscaping between us and the churches property. Buster wanted more attention than I wanted to give him so I called Marilyn to come take a picture. Of course by the time she got there, Buster had calmed down. Later on the preachers children came down to see what was going on and Buster crossed the landscaping to greet them. He is not allowed in the landscaping so he should have known better, but after all, he is just a dog. I told the children to never call him because he was not allowed across the line and that they should come down to visit Buster unless I was there. OK, they probably understood me just about as well as Buster. Anyhow, the good part of this is that he is gentle with children and enjoyed the attention they gave him.
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We let him in the utility room at night, and now I keep him there in the daytime too just to keep the number of Entanglement Reports to a minimum and also, he seems to prefer being in there to being outside and tethered. He is not allowed in the kitchen so he sees just how close he can get and not get his toes stepped on. This is as close as he can get.
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Maybe Buster isn’t the smartest dog in the world after all. He couldn’t figure out how to get out of this and started just jumping and yelping and trying to get away like I’ve never seen him do. I went out to rescue him because the potential for a much worse tangle was there. Also, I worried that he may have gotten into a yellow jackets nest and that was the reason for the jumping about. I will go investigate the yellow jacket theory after I post this.
From the window I watched him get into this mess. That is when I saw him start jumping about and such, but before that he would hit the end of the tether and just sit down and stare at the back door. I think that while Mary was teaching him to sit, she also taught him that if he sits he gets a treat and some attention. Usually when we come back from a walk he will run up on the porch and sit and have those hungry eyes with much lip smacking.
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[photopress:Entanglement_3_17_06.JPG,thumb,pp_empty] Marilyn and I decided to eat on the front porch and Buster didn’t like being left in the back yard so I tethered him to the Red Bud tree by the patio under the Hemlock trees while we ate. Marilyn went on to work and I dozed off in a rocker and was awakened by the sound of patio furniture being drug around. This is such a talented dog. Bless his heart.
BTW do you know that you can click on the picture and it enlarges enough for you to see more details. Click the “Back” button to return to the blog.