What a day!

As you read a few posts back, we started pet-hunting recently & discovered a beautiful female Great Dane. We met her Thursday night, fell in love, and worked the plan out to bring her home today.

We went over & got her this morning about 11:00. We went straight to PetsMart & bought food, some treats, some shampoo and a tag for her. It's always so fun to go to PetsMart with a dog on a leash....but when it's a miniature HORSE you're walking through the store, it's fun because everyone there stops to look & admire. Such a fun feeling for us & the kids! Kind of like being a celebrity for a day. :)

We brought her home, introduced her to the backyard that would be hers & hung out with her (in the yard) for a couple of hours. We finally decided to come inside after a long while & well....Guinevere decided to follow us. We had barely walked into the front door before she came trotting across the front yard. Yikes! We caught her & took her back to the backyard & closed the gate and watched her use her nose to raise the latch & open it right up! ha ha! Smart dog! Larry figured out that he had some clip things he could put into the latch to lock it and they worked. She couldn't raise the latch with those in place. We told the kids right away that if these clips would keep her in, everything would be fine....but if she decided to jump over the fence, we'd be in trouble. We wanted to prepare them for the possibility that we might not be able to keep her if she could jump the fence.

After hanging out with her in the yard for a while, we came back into the house & things were fine for a while. We waited about 45 minutes & we were getting our shoes on to go back out to take her for a walk when the phone rang. It was a neighbor 4-5 houses down calling to tell us that Guinevere was in their yard! Yikes. We checked the gates. Sure enough, they were still locked, which means she figured out how to jump the fence!

We went to get her from the neighbor but knew right then that Guinevere wouldn't be able to stay. If she's jumped the fence once, she'll do it again....and what if that happened while we were all at work/school? What if she ran away? What if someone took her? What if she got hit by a car? We'd never be able to live with that. We called her previous owners & took her back there this afternoon. She was THRILLED to be back 'home'. Larry drove her back & he said he didn't even get the side doors to the van opened. She climbed OVER the drivers seat & bailed out the door & went RUNNING for the front door of their house. She knew where she was & she was happy to be there. I'm glad she's happy.

Samuel took it pretty hard, but he's better now. He actually crawled UNDER my bed to hide & sob for a good while. The girls understood the situation & while they were sad, I don't think either of them cried. I hate to see any of us sad about a pet, but at the same time, I'd much rather see us unhappy now than to face greater grief later if she were to get out & get hit by a car. I want to know she's safe & happy...and clearly, she IS safe & happy being back at her old home.

Larry & I talked this evening & we think we're going to hold off for a little while on any pets. Maybe a nice parakeet or some fish would be good. :)