The waiting game
Well it has been a pretty morose household here over the last couple of weeks, despite the advent of Bigfoot and his Mamma. We all love our piggies and since their loss the back yard has been very, very quiet.
However, this week it has been pretty evident that the neighbours have been determined to keep their dog locked inside except when they are home with him, so we thought it might be worth testing the adjustments they had made to the fence.
This thought was of course helped by tygrr and troll arriving home from a morning out and announcing they could get four of the piggies that we really liked at a discount price and could we, could we, could we, pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease get some piggies at last?
*sighs*
I figured that if we put them in a secure pen that it might put the dog and fence to the ultimate test and still keep our piggies safe. With no further events happening the neighbour had seemed to be pretty laxadaisical about making sure the fence would be secure should the dog try to come into our yard again and so having the piggies might just tempt him to test it. Yeah, I know, entrapment of the dog, but we need to know the pigs would be secure before we let them loose in the garden.
So, off to the fodder store we went and bought,
Rhondo Pig - for tygrr
Mouse Pig - for troll (hey, she chose the name, don't blame me!)
Jimmy Pig - for da Dragon (named after Jimmy Durante!)
More of Jimmy (other than his nose)
And we also got a pig for tygrr's mom. She used to have a pig here called No Pig - from when we asked her if she would like a pig, and she said she wanted No Pig. So we bought her a pig and called it No Pig...:)
This time, it's a new pig, so we bought this cute little guy and called him Gnu Pig. (Gnu is pronounced without the G and is a pun on new..*grins*)
Ta Da! Gnu Pig...:)
After bringing them home we all spent quite a lot of time in the lounge cuddling the piggies as well as taking their pictures. It wasn't until we had piggies to cuddle again that I really realised how much we have missed having our little herd in the back garden. To say tygrr and troll had beaming smiles is quite the understatement.
We thought we might keep one or two in the sturdy pine hutch we have that has survived a previous dog attack, so that the dog could hear and smell the piggies and test what he would do while the piggies were secure. The others we decided to keep in the big outdoor aviary that came with the house. So we left troll inside with the piggies and went out to prepare their new homes.
I decided I would take advantage of the time outside and rake the area under the trees where the piggies will eventually live. I've been wanting to do it for a few weeks but haven't gotten around to it. So tygrr headed down to the aviary and I called out to her asking where the rake was, and then went down the yard to start work, and guess what we saw......
Yeah, they did a real good job of securing him, huh?
Yup, he was right back up on the part of the fence he's always climbed onto and as you could see, he could have easily jumped into our yard.
Tygrr was distressed as all hell. What if we had trusted them when they said he was secure? And guess what? Yup, his owners were both out.
So I decided that if he has learnt it's fun to come into our yard, he might need to learn it's not so fun to sit on the fence, so I shook my rake at him really vigourously and whacked it on the fence next to him and growled at him loudly and told him to get down! Well, he shot backwards off that fence like greased lightening and didn't come back up again.
I went inside to call the owners (who had now given us their mobile) and tygrr went on to clean out the aviary, with us both agreeing ALL the piggies could be housed in their for now.
The owner said he was at the hardware store getting some more stuff to secure the yard. He said the agency who rents the house to them won't let them raise the fenceline higher so he has to try the plastic piping on wire trick that the Council had recommended to keep him in. I suggested to him that we had some really sturdy trellis from when the fence on the other side had been replaced. I said that while he wasn't allowed to technically raise the height of the fence, if the piping on wire didn't work, perhaps he could use the trellis in that corner which is clearly the problem area, and plant a vine next to it and claim he was gardening, not raising the fence. (see, we are trying to help them)
But he said if it didn't work this time, they would have to place the dog elsewhere, or break their lease. He's clearly annoyed at having to spend his weekends working on the fence and clearly frustrated that he has to do something about it. I am rather glad I called the council in on this. We would never have had the impact on him that they did. I think he would have just ignored us.
So, now it's back to a wait and see game, although we do have 'bait' secure in the back aviary. I don't think it will hurt them either to stay in there for a while. I think they are very much not used to the big wide outside world and so adjusting them bit by bit to the big open spaces is probably a good thing.
So now we wait. They KNOW we have more piggies, so there is a definite risk if the dog gets out again. It will be interesting to see what happens. Needless to say, I shall be keeping quite a weather eye on my back yard for a while.
For now we shall only have these four. Later, when we know it's safe to let them out, we shall gradually restock, but only up to about ten. That's about all my yard can handle here with the drought and water restrictions.
I do feel sorry for the dog, but at the same time I'm becoming increasingly wary of him. He's showing all the signs of being a strong-minded, dominant dog. His owners are only his human slaves who feed and water him. He's the one who rules them, that is obvious. And when a dog like him starts to think he can do what he likes, it's a bit of a worry.
So again it's the waiting game.....
Red
However, this week it has been pretty evident that the neighbours have been determined to keep their dog locked inside except when they are home with him, so we thought it might be worth testing the adjustments they had made to the fence.
This thought was of course helped by tygrr and troll arriving home from a morning out and announcing they could get four of the piggies that we really liked at a discount price and could we, could we, could we, pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease get some piggies at last?
*sighs*
I figured that if we put them in a secure pen that it might put the dog and fence to the ultimate test and still keep our piggies safe. With no further events happening the neighbour had seemed to be pretty laxadaisical about making sure the fence would be secure should the dog try to come into our yard again and so having the piggies might just tempt him to test it. Yeah, I know, entrapment of the dog, but we need to know the pigs would be secure before we let them loose in the garden.
So, off to the fodder store we went and bought,
Rhondo Pig - for tygrr
Mouse Pig - for troll (hey, she chose the name, don't blame me!)
Jimmy Pig - for da Dragon (named after Jimmy Durante!)
More of Jimmy (other than his nose)
And we also got a pig for tygrr's mom. She used to have a pig here called No Pig - from when we asked her if she would like a pig, and she said she wanted No Pig. So we bought her a pig and called it No Pig...:)
This time, it's a new pig, so we bought this cute little guy and called him Gnu Pig. (Gnu is pronounced without the G and is a pun on new..*grins*)
Ta Da! Gnu Pig...:)
After bringing them home we all spent quite a lot of time in the lounge cuddling the piggies as well as taking their pictures. It wasn't until we had piggies to cuddle again that I really realised how much we have missed having our little herd in the back garden. To say tygrr and troll had beaming smiles is quite the understatement.
We thought we might keep one or two in the sturdy pine hutch we have that has survived a previous dog attack, so that the dog could hear and smell the piggies and test what he would do while the piggies were secure. The others we decided to keep in the big outdoor aviary that came with the house. So we left troll inside with the piggies and went out to prepare their new homes.
I decided I would take advantage of the time outside and rake the area under the trees where the piggies will eventually live. I've been wanting to do it for a few weeks but haven't gotten around to it. So tygrr headed down to the aviary and I called out to her asking where the rake was, and then went down the yard to start work, and guess what we saw......
Yeah, they did a real good job of securing him, huh?
Yup, he was right back up on the part of the fence he's always climbed onto and as you could see, he could have easily jumped into our yard.
Tygrr was distressed as all hell. What if we had trusted them when they said he was secure? And guess what? Yup, his owners were both out.
So I decided that if he has learnt it's fun to come into our yard, he might need to learn it's not so fun to sit on the fence, so I shook my rake at him really vigourously and whacked it on the fence next to him and growled at him loudly and told him to get down! Well, he shot backwards off that fence like greased lightening and didn't come back up again.
I went inside to call the owners (who had now given us their mobile) and tygrr went on to clean out the aviary, with us both agreeing ALL the piggies could be housed in their for now.
The owner said he was at the hardware store getting some more stuff to secure the yard. He said the agency who rents the house to them won't let them raise the fenceline higher so he has to try the plastic piping on wire trick that the Council had recommended to keep him in. I suggested to him that we had some really sturdy trellis from when the fence on the other side had been replaced. I said that while he wasn't allowed to technically raise the height of the fence, if the piping on wire didn't work, perhaps he could use the trellis in that corner which is clearly the problem area, and plant a vine next to it and claim he was gardening, not raising the fence. (see, we are trying to help them)
But he said if it didn't work this time, they would have to place the dog elsewhere, or break their lease. He's clearly annoyed at having to spend his weekends working on the fence and clearly frustrated that he has to do something about it. I am rather glad I called the council in on this. We would never have had the impact on him that they did. I think he would have just ignored us.
So, now it's back to a wait and see game, although we do have 'bait' secure in the back aviary. I don't think it will hurt them either to stay in there for a while. I think they are very much not used to the big wide outside world and so adjusting them bit by bit to the big open spaces is probably a good thing.
So now we wait. They KNOW we have more piggies, so there is a definite risk if the dog gets out again. It will be interesting to see what happens. Needless to say, I shall be keeping quite a weather eye on my back yard for a while.
For now we shall only have these four. Later, when we know it's safe to let them out, we shall gradually restock, but only up to about ten. That's about all my yard can handle here with the drought and water restrictions.
I do feel sorry for the dog, but at the same time I'm becoming increasingly wary of him. He's showing all the signs of being a strong-minded, dominant dog. His owners are only his human slaves who feed and water him. He's the one who rules them, that is obvious. And when a dog like him starts to think he can do what he likes, it's a bit of a worry.
So again it's the waiting game.....
Red