That Darn Dog

It's not Roxy this time... it's Kobi.

I can not keep Kobi in the yard. I put her out the back door when I'm leaving for work and BOOM, she gets to the front porch before I do.  She makes this funny little whimpering sound right before she climbs over the fence, so I can hear her escaping, even as I'm locking the back door.  It's so frustrating, because I know what's coming next...

The chase. 

View of my rearview mirror, with Kobi in hot pursuit.

This used to be cute, but it's escalating into a problem I'm not sure what to do about.  Once  Kobi is out, she's impossible to call or to catch.  I don't even bother trying to corral her because I know she's not coming to me and if I try to catch her I run the risk of just chasing her further away.  When it doesn't matter if she's home right away, I just forget about it and wait for her to turn up on the front porch, or even to climb back over the fence and let herself into the garage.  But when she's out and I need to leave the house, it's a whole different story.

At first I could get in the car and call her and she would jump right in, thinking she was going for a ride.  Then she got wise to that and I had to actually start to back out of the driveway before she would come.  Finally I was reduced to cruising up and down the street with her running behind my car, stopping every few minutes to try to coax her in. But that is taking longer every day, as she is hip to the game and only gets close enough to taunt me before darting off again. 

Sometimes I get frustrated enough to just gun it and leave her in the dust.  Eventually she will quit chasing and go home.  But sometimes she follows me all the way to the main cross street, and I know from experience that she will not hesitate to chase my car out into traffic (she once crossed four lanes of morning traffic to follow me).  So if I can't shake her within half a block, I have to turn around and start over.

This morning I left her standing in the middle of the street when I went to work.  There was a work-crew across from our house that was cutting limbs out of the power lines, and she was a little shy of passing their big, noisy equipment.  But by the time I'd come home for lunch, however... she had gotten over all that.

When I tried to leave, she chased me all the way to the busy cross street, whereupon I turned around and headed back the way I'd come.  We proceeded – her chasing, me stopping every 20 yards or so – back down the street, past our house and all the way to the cross street on the opposite end of the block.  Still no luck.  So I turned around and returned to the house, planning on getting out and hoping she would be fooled into thinking I was "just getting home" and run to me. 

No such luck.  Finally, I resigned myself to just gunning it and leaving her in the street again, so I got in and started to back out my car. 

By this time, the tree crew is cracking up completely.  Can't say that I blame them... it is evident who's in charge here.   As I pulled out this last time, one of the men stopped his work and crossed the street, calling and sweet-talking Kobi, trying to entice her.  I rolled down my window and told him, thanks for the effort, but there was no way he was going to be able to catch her.  He laughed and said "I'm not trying to catch her!  I'm just trying to buy you some time to get away!"

Sigh. Well, it worked, at least.

Tonight, it looks like I'll be hooking up the electric fence... again.