As has been the case in recent weeks, I am TOO often even, not much present. Everyday life takes me over, and the little time I spend indoors is often filled with boring things like household chores, as well as monitoring trades, looking up information and that kind of things. And I can also be found outside a lot to prepare everything for the coming summer season.
In terms of temperature it is slowly becoming something. We are almost celebrating the Ice Saints, after which all the carefully cultivated plants can finally go outside, and we get some space again inside.
For the time being, the work in the garden consists mainly of very mind-numbing weeds, but there is also plenty to do with digging the soil, taking care of the bonsai trees and, last but not least, playing with the dogs. Because they also want one thing with these temperatures, and that is to be outside and run around with balls ...
And unexpectedly, other things suddenly happen that I don't take into account, and that I have always thought would not happen to me. In all the years that I have now been a proud owner of shepherd dogs, it has never happened to me that one of my dogs has gone on an adventure alone.
I was outside with the dogs and had to go to the toilet for a while, of course that happens more often and that is normally not a problem. The dogs just keep playing outside and wait faithfully until I get back to them, which doesn't take long either. This time it was a bit different, in the few minutes that I was not in the garden, and did not keep an eye on them… our Skipper and Lana started digging together. Skipper digs hard, fast and deep with his large paws. And they had started digging at the fence… Normally I take them out of there and immediately close the hole again, but yes, of course that is not possible if you are not there. Skipper had dug his hole so fast and Lana is a pretty fine-built bitch, the hole had just come under the fence and Lana apparently could just slide underneath. How she did it will always be a mystery to me, but the fact of the matter was that she was gone when I came out after just a few minutes.
My heart skipped three times, and I was shocked completely blankly. Of all three of my dogs, Lana is the dog you can trust the least. She really dares to bite when a stranger approaches her, and she can't stand cyclists. Let it be that there are always many cyclists passing by here. I quickly locked Skipper and Myla inside, locked the door and ran out. Hoping to see Lana walking somewhere. But of course that is never the case… if you hope something it will not happen.
And then there you are, which way would she have gone? Where would she be? The first impression I got was to walk to the forest where we usually go for a walk. It was a gamble, because she could have run in any direction, of course. Looking for an adventure. When I walked into the woods it was again thinking which way she would go there and my heart sank in my shoes.
In the meantime my partner was also at home, and he went the other way to search. Both phones so we could call each other when we saw Lana. After a 20-minute walk through the woods, the lap I usually walk with the dogs, my phone rang. It was my partner to say he went into the woods on the other side because there was no Lana in the open field. And just when we were about to disconnect, I heard a sound that reminded me of an animal stuck somewhere. I said to my partner "Hold on for a minute" and ran the way I heard the sound. And a little later I saw Lana. I quickly described to my partner where he needed to be and ran over to Lana. It turned out that Lana was stuck with her paw. She had walked in barbed wire and couldn't get her paw loose. Blood ran from a few wounds on her paw. Because she was in such pain and was so shocked she didn't let me untie the barbed wire right away, so I tried to stay calm, so she would calm down.
When my partner arrived a little later we were able to free Lana from the barbed wire and leash her to take home. Luckily my partner came by car, and we didn't have to walk all the way home, but once Lana got into the car we decided to call the vet straight away to have her checked.
Fortunately, nothing needed to be stitched. The wounds have been cleaned and are much less serious than we thought afterwards. It looked worse than it was, thankfully!
Only then was it time to get home to see how she could get away, and we saw that she must have crawled under the netting. We closed that hole very well and placed stones in front of it. And also a large scaffolding plank over it and screwed so that no hole can be dug underneath
Fortunately, it all went well afterwards, and that not all three went on an adventure. The shock was enough in my body… and made me decide that in the future the dogs really shouldn't be left alone in the garden for a minute. Or with me outside, or with my partner outside, or inside… but again such an adventure? No thanks!
By the way, Lana is doing well again. She is just playing with her ball again as if nothing had happened, and the wounds also heal quickly. Now time for me to recover from the shock… then the garden fun can begin again.
