Long story about dogs but so far it ends well.
For years my wife's family owned a mountain house above Asheville N.C and a goodly number of years ago I got frustrated with having to keep up with our two dogs at the time... they were gone for hours one day... the reality is they were just a hundred yards off digging a hole in the bank trying to get to a ground hog.. But I fixed the problem by getting a set of Garmin GPS tracking collars and have had them for years... now I actually have two.
Move to current times... we sold the mountain house after 35 years and now this Spring my wife gets the idea she wants to go to the mountains this Summer and after much research we rent a house and are there now. This is a farm house situated way back but in a very small community with a house every hundred yards or so. Also our 12 year old Catahoula is no longer a run off dog... he will wander slowly but knows pretty much where the food is and will come back.... But this past January my wife decided it was now time again for dog #2 and she picked out this little 5 year old Fox Hound that still thinks she is a Pub. We get here and I let them out and they check out the 6 or 8 acres following the fence line alll around... even though the place was advertised as fence in they did not disclose that the gates are what I call Farm/Cattle gates and a smallish dog can get through pretty easy.
Well last evening just before dark, Tally the fox hound slips past my wife and goes out in the yard.... all of a sudden she gets a sent and heads down the drive way... I swear she had to be hitting close to 50mph...and screaming at the top of her lungs...(we presume chasing a deer, we saw one down there an hour or so before) she goes through the gate and heads down the road.... Point being I had put one of the GPS tracking collars on her. (thank the Lord) I realize there is no chasing her on foot, I need to go get the tracking receiver that's in the house and get in the car and go looking... by the time I get down the drive and step out to see what direction she is in... it shows she is now up the road in the other direction 200+ yards.... every 30 seconds or so I can hear her cry.... I drive up that way a couple hundred yards and stop by a big field and get out... 265 yard on the other side of the field it shows... So I head out on foot across the field.... which is a good 200 yards across, by the time I get to the fence line now she is another 200 yards back in the woods... so, I find a gate and go through it... small dirt farm road on the other side... she's still 200 yards away... by the time I push the gate open and step out on the road all of a sudden this little white streak goes by me and then stops...and turns and give me the look... "what the hell are you doing out here?" I did have the sense to bring a leash with me and so we made it back over that field to the car and home but now I have the job of figuring out how to temporally modify the the gates so that iddy bit can't escape again.
here she is:
For years my wife's family owned a mountain house above Asheville N.C and a goodly number of years ago I got frustrated with having to keep up with our two dogs at the time... they were gone for hours one day... the reality is they were just a hundred yards off digging a hole in the bank trying to get to a ground hog.. But I fixed the problem by getting a set of Garmin GPS tracking collars and have had them for years... now I actually have two.
Move to current times... we sold the mountain house after 35 years and now this Spring my wife gets the idea she wants to go to the mountains this Summer and after much research we rent a house and are there now. This is a farm house situated way back but in a very small community with a house every hundred yards or so. Also our 12 year old Catahoula is no longer a run off dog... he will wander slowly but knows pretty much where the food is and will come back.... But this past January my wife decided it was now time again for dog #2 and she picked out this little 5 year old Fox Hound that still thinks she is a Pub. We get here and I let them out and they check out the 6 or 8 acres following the fence line alll around... even though the place was advertised as fence in they did not disclose that the gates are what I call Farm/Cattle gates and a smallish dog can get through pretty easy.
Well last evening just before dark, Tally the fox hound slips past my wife and goes out in the yard.... all of a sudden she gets a sent and heads down the drive way... I swear she had to be hitting close to 50mph...and screaming at the top of her lungs...(we presume chasing a deer, we saw one down there an hour or so before) she goes through the gate and heads down the road.... Point being I had put one of the GPS tracking collars on her. (thank the Lord) I realize there is no chasing her on foot, I need to go get the tracking receiver that's in the house and get in the car and go looking... by the time I get down the drive and step out to see what direction she is in... it shows she is now up the road in the other direction 200+ yards.... every 30 seconds or so I can hear her cry.... I drive up that way a couple hundred yards and stop by a big field and get out... 265 yard on the other side of the field it shows... So I head out on foot across the field.... which is a good 200 yards across, by the time I get to the fence line now she is another 200 yards back in the woods... so, I find a gate and go through it... small dirt farm road on the other side... she's still 200 yards away... by the time I push the gate open and step out on the road all of a sudden this little white streak goes by me and then stops...and turns and give me the look... "what the hell are you doing out here?" I did have the sense to bring a leash with me and so we made it back over that field to the car and home but now I have the job of figuring out how to temporally modify the the gates so that iddy bit can't escape again.
here she is:
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