Tuesday, January 9, 2007

My daughter, the Yorkie wrangler.

Those who followed me here from ye olde blogge may have seen the photo of the adorable but unknown cat in the catnip pot. He came back today. He fled the yard as the dogs came out the back door. The cat left via the over the top of the fence route - and Murphy ran to a weak spot in the fence and busted out by wiggling his ass through a very small gap, and went to chase him down.

Girlchild spent the next 20 minutes searching for him. She found the offending cat, who was very talkative and followed her, meowing the story of his life and how he wanted to visit that lovely pot of catnip and that dog came after him and he left the yard and that DOG CHASED HIM! and it was very awful and could he please have some catnip? But Murphy was nowhere in sight.

I was at work while this was going on.

After much calling and looking, Girl spotted Murphy up the street, on the way to the Busy Road, happily sniffing and peeing on mailboxes and taking his sweet time. Murphy knows every inch of these streets, he has lived here all of his life, and he is supremely confident that Everybody Loves Murphy and no harm could ever befall him, and oblivious to the reality that he is way smaller than a possum and not a hell of a lot bigger than a squirrel, from a driver's perspective, and they get hit by cars all the damn time. So Girl was freaking because Murphy lives in that little bubble of self-confidence that does not look for cars.

Fortunately we are on a very quiet street. She went to get him, called him, and he ran to her happy as hell - "Damn, this was FUN!"

We have blocked the weak spot in the fence. I'm thinking a good hurricane season and it'll be time for a new fence. And until then I will have to stand over them when they are in the yard.

Murphy is SIX years old! He never showed any inclination at all to wander in his entire life. The cat in the yard was just too much, he had to protect the homestead and Follow That Cat!

9 comments:

Debi said...

I think you should adopt the catnip thief - he seems quite needy and Murphy can get his exercise IN the yard!

Nana Sadie said...

Dogs will be dogs, ya know! Debi's got a great idea - adopt the cat in the pot!
I like the new space, btw...
(((hugs)))

Bess said...

Seems like you can teach an old dog new tricks! Escape artist. Thank goodness Girlchild found him.

Sue said...

Uh Oh. Murphy has tasted freedom. Look out!

Anonymous said...

A little bit of fencing or a few posts should block the weak spot until it's time for a new fence. Dogs love to exploit those spots time and again and it's hard to never leave them to it.

Catherine said...

The cat is not a stray, he is a catnip addict. He is looking for a high, not a home. He is fat, well cared for, and nosy. And the fence was of course already repaired well enough to keep the adventurer in, but after the hurricanes in '04, any good storm may be the one to finish it off. It needs to be patrolled for weak spots regularly now.

Anonymous said...

My Yorkie will be six in April. She is the second one I have had. I live in Iowa, and we have to worry about owls and hawks trying to carry away small dogs. I live in town, but I've seen foxes in my neighborhood. (There is a wooded ravine with a creek running through it at the end of my block.) Love the new digs---
Brenda.

Catherine said...

We have owls, hawks, possums, raccoons, foxes, a deer now and then, and BEARS. On my street. I'm in a not-rural-at-all neighborhood about a mile as the bear wanders from a state park. They have been sighted on my street, by my own daughter, in fact. It worries me when I walk Murphy, because he has no concept of his own size, he is 10 feet tall and bulletproof, and he would try to run off a black bear just like he ran off that Intruding Cat.

shirleyknits said...

My yorkie would occasionally escape from the yard, no matter how much we thought that the fence was yorkie-proof! He was Houdini.

Happy Knitting!