And I hate myself for feeling this way. It brings up so many bad memories of her first year with me. Her pounding the back doors in the middle of the night, startling me awake from a dead sleep, to go chase a critter; her insistence of sleeping with me; her running off and leaving me while hiking; the way she turns to acknowledge my "NO," squints, turns her head in the direction she wants to go and bolts.
What has me feeling this way is not one but two kitty incidents. Mabel has a high prey drive. And she wants to eat cats. I keep waiting for her to have an encounter with a cat that will beat her up a bit.... no such luck.
This is an overview of where we hike daily. The purple arrow is where we park (it got a little fuzzy when sizing). The main creek is below that long line that runs across the top of the photo... the line is the levy. As the creek is dry this time of year, we settle for the urban runoff. You can see the channel from dead center bottom. It curves up and left. There is an area full of eucalyptus and poplar trees where the water forms a pond before moving on.
Normally, we park and turn left behind the big overbuilt Mcmansions. Shortly before the white arrow is a house / dog I love to visit with. A gorgeous yellow lab I call Summer Sunshine. This dog seems very lonely and I know she looks forward to my visits with her.
We then circle behind the houses, head back toward the big creek and end up in the runoff to let Mabel cool down before going home. We often do variations depending on how good my feet feel but these are the highlights.
A few weeks back, Mabel discovered the house with the white arrow has kittens in their back yard - actually the side of their house. As their yard is well fenced, I would visit with Summer Sunshine while Mabel whined and scratched outside the kitty fence. I would call her and we would be on our way.
Two days ago, Mabel discovered a ditch that runs behind their yard. She shimmied under the fence over the ditch - it doesn't go all the way down to allow for flooding. Again as there was a fence around their yard, I wasn't really worried. She got bored and came to me eventually.
Yesterday, we ran into a fellow rottie owner and one of her dogs we haven't seen in months as he was nursing a snakebite. We played with him for a bit and ran into our regular pack.
The four dogs played and ran. It was hot and we thought they were all exhausted. We hiked with the Ridgies back to our cars and Mabel bolted. I was shocked she left her friends.
They left, I got her leash and hiked over to the house. She had shimmied under the fenced ditch and was sizing up their back fence... which had fallen and was replaced with deer fencing. Within a heartbeat, she was in their yard!
I couldn't get over the side fence or under the ditch fence. I raced back to the car and drove around. I didn't realize at the time that there were two additional cul-de-sacs. I went to the first one and tried to get in the back yard before realizing I was in the wrong place... repeated that in a second cul-de-sac before finding the right one.
The homeowner was a little afraid of Mabel and was in the side yard watching the fiasco. I asked him to turn on his hose. The kittens had taken refuge on top of a grape arbor over a barbeque. Mabel was on top of their grill, leaping at the kittens!
I chased her with a hose for a good 10 minutes before she came to me. I couldn't believe how laid back the guy was..."It's OK. Don't worry about it." I would have read the riot act to someone if those had been my kittens!
Tonight we have our regular hike with our pack. I kept her on leash well past the kitten house, much to the dismay of our friends. I let her go as we were heading into open land... right near Melvin's house. Turns out, Melvin's parents have a cat!
I heard Mabel jumping and scratching on their door. I ran as fast as my pitiful feet would carry me. I squirted her with my water bottle and finally got her leashed up, knocking over a ton of patio furniture in the process. It still took me a good five minutes to drag her off their porch and back into the creek.
By the time we got back to the pack, I was limping... my foot had just started to feel better. My back was aching and I was furious. The whole reason I take Mabel to the creek is to allow her to roam at her own pace and not be pulling me and my terrible feet / back. I'm starting to feel too old for my dog. And after two days of this crap, I don't care if I ever walk her again.
Just when I thought she was maturing and listening, she pulls this. Do I have to wait til she's a senior citizen to enjoy my walks with her?
UPDATE: I called Kat... I had given her a shock collar for her dog. It was one I bought for Mabel and she mysteriously turned into the best good girl before I even took the thing out of the box! Kat found the collar and brought it over. Mabel wore it out with the pack tonight. I only used the buzzer (noise only) three times. I used it to correct her running away once and rough housing Sue twice. She was amazingly well behaved and disliked the noise very much.
And... Mabel had another breakthrough tonight. We've been trying for months to teach her to drink from a water bottle like Hank & Sue and tonight she finally got it! She even came up to me and tapped my bottle with her nose! So, she's back in the nook for now.
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