About A Dog (Part 4)

I tried to remember the sequence of various events, but over a period of fourteen years, and many different occurrences, it's difficult to remember exactly what happened when, and which event preceded another. Let me simply say that Sydney, in her younger years, came to be known as Houdini. Early on it was assumed that she could simply be contained in a simple fenced in enclosure. Digging her way to freedom proved that as a total fallacy in logic.

I remember at some early point, and perhaps immediately following the enclosure idea, I purchased an underground fence system. For any who do not know, this is simply a system with a wire buried in the ground, defining the perimeter of confinement, together with a receiver which broadcasts a radio signal through the wire and a receiver collar which converts this signal to a mild shock. I say mild, but if like me, you have ever had the misfortune to receive a shock from one of these devices, they don't actually feel all that mild. (And this from one who used to be an electrician and frequently received shocks from 110 volt electrical circuits). So, I installed this system, spent a week or so training Sydney to the location of the boundary, and the consequence of trying to cross it. She took to the training pretty well, always was a ready and quick learner. We were set. We had a new system of confinement, Sydney now had the run of the entire yard, and though I was a little worried, the training had looked promising. Great! Things went well, and the system worked as advertised. We went to work and school every day, and Sydney was waiting for us every day when we arrived home, safe and sound. The one problem, was that this dog was simply too smart for her own good. The receiver collar didn't simply deliver a shock, but gave a warning sound a few feet before the area where the shock was delivered. It didn't take Sydney much time at all to discover this fact, so she would get proceed to a location where the collar would beep, and drain the battery, so eventually I was coming home to find a totally drained battery, one which previously had lasted for a week before needing charging. Did I realize what was happening? No. Simply thought the battery was defective, so I replaced the collar, but the problem kept occurring, and it took me some time to discover what was actually going on. I charged the collar every night, and life went on as usual. Then one day we came home, and Sydney was nowhere to be found, She had apparently drained the battery early enough that she realized that she could roam at her leisure. Now we had problems.

I can't remember exactly how early in Sydney's time with us that this event happened, but remember the event pretty clearly. We were at home, life was taking its normal course, and I heard one of the most horrible sounds, a screech of tires, followed by a dog yelping. Fear! Sydney was nowhere to be found, but my wife's family, who live across the road from us, heard this also and saw her running onto their property. So we began the search. The teary, nauseating search for what I knew was an injured and possibly near death loved one. We searched everywhere. Well, I suppose that is absurd, but we did look for a long time, to no avail. Eventually reality set in with the darkness and we were forced to give up. Devastation. By this point, even though this was "just a dog" and simply "an outside dog" Sydney was an important part of our family, and we were distraught. Sleep came slowly and fitfully that night. Sometime during the night, my wife's brother called, Sydney had ended up at his house and was bedded down in his field, so off we go to see how bad the damage was. She appeared unhurt, externally at least, so we brought her back home, She had this odd cough though, and we were worried about internal damage, but it was the middle of the night, and nothing could be done. I say that based on the way I felt at the time. Years later, I would wake the vet at any hour, find an emergency clinic at any distance, and do anything I could to save this friend, but my mind and soul had still not fully evolved at that time. So we babied her, listened and worried through the night, but by morning, you could never guess that anything ever happened.