All was well until Mr P’s daughter called me to tell me that Lizzie had escaped by biting off the netting which covered a hole in their gate. I quickly informed the chief security guard and kind neighbours, and wasted no time in heading out to look for her.
I feared that she might be so angry that she might leave our neighbourhood especially when Mr P’s house is near the exit of our guarded community. That is why I informed the chief guard first to be on the lookout for Lizzie.
So I left our house and started walking towards Mr P’s house.
Well, what do you know…there was Lizzie, walking up towards our house, towards me!
There you are, Lizzie. I maintained my composure and called out to her. Lizzie came to me.
First step – ok.
Yes, all good. She isn’t angry with me for leaving her at Mr P’s house. She still completely trusts me. I think she’s just coming back to our house. Luckily there weren’t any cars on the road at that time in the hot afternoon. So I patted her and lured her to the side of the road.
This is a friendly neighbour’s house, so we waited while I texted Mr P’s daughter to bring the leash. Without the leash, there was no way I could walk her back to our house or Mr P’s.
Lizzie waited patiently with me in front of this neighbour’s house until Mr P’s daughter arrived with the leash. Luckily I was able to leash her again. Then I called husband to come back as we needed the car to take her back. It would be safer than me walking her back as she might struggle and escape again. I just couldn’t risk her escaping again, fearful she might lose her trust in me.
Husband finally came and we loaded Lizzie into my car and drove her back to Mr P’s. Lizzie was reluctant to get out of the car when we arrived, so we had to carry her out.
Back “home”, safe and sound.
I suggested that husband help to net up the hole in Mr P’s gate where Lizzie had escaped from, so he went back to get our netting and helped cover up the hole, double-layered.
After that, we went out to buy Lizzie a new collar. Mr P has his old dog’s collar which we tried on Lizzie but it was too big.
A nice new collar for you, Lizzie. This is a your new home, so please don’t escape again.
We passed by the house just now and Lizzie was still there.
When I first got the news that Lizzie had escaped, I was really worried that she would be angry at us, or she would have lost all her trust in us. That is probably what humans would feel, right? But dogs are not humans, luckily! They don’t harbour such negative reasoning. Either they are simpler in their reasoning and thinking or they go deeper and understand our good intentions. Or, perhaps, dogs are just such sublime creatures that they think much more positively than us humans! They only see the good in us.
We have so much to learn from dogs, don’t we?