- This topic has 17 replies, 1 voice, and was last updated 12 years, 11 months ago by .
-
Posts
-
We had a Christmas party tonight for my work. My mother-in-law came by to watch the boys for us so we could go. We only stayed an hour.
When we came home, she mentioned in passing our dog wouldn’t come in so she’d let him stay outside. He’s a Shiba Inu and is a little shy of people he doesn’t know well, so I didn’t think much of it.
However, it’s REALLY cold tonight and he prefers laying in front of the fire to being outside in the cold, so when we got home and he didn’t ask to come in, I suggested we should go call him.
He didn’t come.
My husband put on his shoes and found the back gate open. My mother-in-law hadn’t noticed it. Our dog had been gone since 5 pm and it was now 8:30 pm.
Shiba Inus have a high prey drive, are bad at coming when called, and don’t tend to like strangers – not a good combination for a lost dog.
We started searching the neighborhood with no luck. We even got our neighbor (who is a cop) to check with dispatch and animal control WAAAYY after hours to see if someone had picked our guy or if anyone had reported a loose dog. No luck. Our neighbor started helping us search along with his teenage daughter. An hour later, no dog.
We came home to try and figure out what to do next (discovering in the process we had scared my son to death because we had forgotten to mention to him we needed to go look for the dog and he was freaking because his parents disappeared – he’s 8).
I stayed home, but asked my husband to drive around the near by streets… JUST IN CASE.
He came back literally five minutes later. I was terrified when he opened the door thinking he found our dog dead. But no, he’d found him just outside our neighborhood, cornered by a very concerned man with a big, black dog who was trying to figure out what to do about him.
It’s been 30 minutes and I’m STILL shaking like a leaf. We’re always so careful with the gate, I just want to smack my mother-in-law for not checking (she’s aware of his running away capabilities).
Hoping I stop feeling sick sometime tonight. SOOOOO glad he’s home! Still, adrenaline is a cruel, cruel mistress. 🙂
Drink some nice hot chocolate (or hot decaf tea!) At least you found him and no one was hurt. Maybe pop in your favorite movie, you will be relaxed in no time! :bigsmile: HUGZ
I’m glad he made it home safe! That’s one of my biggest fears is having one of my shih tzus take off—because they don’t listen either!!!!
So glad you found your little furry fox demon. Shiba inus are so cute, I would have been worried too, you know someone would totally steal one…until they realized just what a little hunting horror they’d brought home!
My sister was just telling me how happy she was her little shiba hasn’t gotten out of the yard for two years now; it’s a record! The damn meter reader person has left her gate open countless times =POh, you know, that might be how it got open! We’ve been wracking our brain about it.
I’m not sure someone COULD steal him – he’s not at all aggressive, but he barely tolerates us picking him up – strangers can almost never get close enough to grab him. 🙂
I am so relieved he’s home. He’s in his crate now – I may never let him out again. LOL!
We live in fear of our greyhounds getting into hunting mode and running underneath a car…
Put a sign on your gate; that way, this will hopefully never happen again.
Read my books! Volume 1 and 2 of A Dragon Medley are available now.
http://www.sarahjestin.com/mybooks.htm
I host the feedback lists, which are maintained by drag0nfeathers.
http://www.sarahjestin.com/feedbacklists.htmSoooo relieved to hear he’s safe at home now! Does he have a tag w/ your contact information? I have five indoor-only cats but they all wear collars with tags. My husband says it’s not necessary (they’re all long-haired and he doesn’t like the way the collars leave a dent in their neck fur) but it gives me peace of mind just in case they ever accidentally got out.
Right now he just has his license tag and his microchip. He’s wary of stranges so he’s much more likely to get picked up by animal control than some nice person who wants a new dog. All of our information is attached to his license and his chip.
I am going to get him a nice tag now though too! He’s long haired, but the collar actually just kind of disappears into his neck, lol.
A sign for the gate is a great idea too! Also, we might go get a new latch for the gate that we can lock…
I’m so glad to hear that everything turned out okay. I know that awful feeling when you suddenly realize that your pet has gotten loose and is missing. My staffordshire bull terrier got out once when he was only 4 months old (darn workmen left the gate open, argh!).
When I noticed he was gone, it felt like the bottom of my stomach dropped out, especially considering that he didn’t have any collar/ID on. Thankfully, he’s a total homebody, and had simply walked out the backyard, circled around the front of the house, and sat himself down on the front doormat. Such a good boy!
I got a “I live here, please shut the gate” sign shortly after.
Have you gotten him micro chipped?
Yes indeed! That was his first vet procedure once we purchased him! 🙂
Can you put a lock on your back gate so that you know that it is locked. I know how you feel and we now lock our back gate with a keyed padlock and only have 2 keys so we know when the gate is opened. We have 4 aussie’s that love to run the streets. A very very busy street. I now feel safer with it locked and now we are tring to get and undergroung system set up. They really work well My parents dog wont go any were near their system and only to one VERY small sting and he’s hasn’t left the yard since.
Gladd you had a good out come.I think we will be getting a lock this weekend. An underground system wouldn’t work super awesome for Shibas I’m told – I guess they are likely to panic and run OUT of the underground fence, then be too scared to come back in. In any case, he stays in the yard unless the gate is open, so a lock should solve the problem. 😀
Feeling much better tonight… no drama and puppy is curled up at my feet gnawing on a toy.
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
