Tippystale2

Tippy's Tale Page 2

Our last summer living in Wisconsin, I thought it would be nice for Tippy and my young black Lab Shady
to be able to spend the days outside under two big pines overlooking our beautiful river, rather than
cooped up in the house while I was at work. My son and I spent an entire Saturday building an 8' x 13'
chain link kennel on a cement pad next to our house, brutalizing our hands and backs in the process.
Living in a rural area, we had ordered a "kit" delivered, not having access to anyone who sold kennel
panels. Once it was completed and anchored down, I bought a lock to keep anyone from stealing the
girls. At that time, we had 3 male dogs as well, Hudson, Jack and Hershey, the latter two being our older
adopted Lab mixes. Jack and Hershey were already in Michigan with my husband while Hudson, a fully
trained dog working on his Senior Hunter title by then, was perfectly content, as well as trustworthy, in
the house.

Tippy was quite young, a year and a half, but had already torn the ACL's in both knees and had
undergone surgery for both. Shady was about 5 months old at the time. We "test drove" the kennel on
Sunday and all seemed fine. The following Monday, I put the girls in the kennel and went to work at my
job at a vet's office. Upon arriving home after work, I pulled up to the house and saw to my horror that
there were no dogs in the kennel. I got out of the car and first checked the lock, which was intact. My
heart sunk to my stomach and stayed there, sending the blood pounding through my eardrums as panic
started to set in. I looked wildly around the yard, calling their names, until I noticed a hole torn in the
side of the kennel. Now I really panicked, wondering where my two girls were. We sat far back off a
rural road but we were also right on a river and Tippy loved to swim and chase ducks as far as she
could before getting caught. I could just imagine poor little Shady tagging along.

Then, as I continued calling for them and looking frantically around the yard, I heard barking in the
house. I went in through the garage service door, as usual, and there were Tippy and Shady, happy as
could be, loose in the house. After the rush of adrenaline subsided and checking to make sure they
were unharmed, I went through the house trying to figure out how they got in it. I kept all the doors
locked as it was for sale and all the chains were in place. In checking the door leading to the balcony
that ran along the living room and faced the river, I noticed one of the screens in the floor-to-ceiling
windows was pushed in and the crank-type window opened wide, not how I would normally leave it.
After doing an inspection of the exterior doors and windows, it became obvious that Tippy had tried all
the doors and many of the windows until she found one open enough that she could force it wider, push
the screen into the living room and get in the house. Thankfully, young Shady followed her.

Tippy had quite the self-satisfied air about her and despite many repairs and reinforcements, the
kennel never did hold her for more than the few minutes it took her to find a way out, so we ultimately
scrapped that idea and left her in the house.

Over the years, Tippy has also become quite adept at opening crates from the inside and of the six I
have, only one is apparently escape-proof. We've discovered, to our expense, that if left loose in the
house, either from boredom or anxiety, we aren't sure which, Tippy can destroy quite a bit of
Sheetrock, woodwork and carpet, so confinement is a sad but necessary must for her. She doesn't do
it every time we leave her, but she is unpredictable and decides by her rules if she's been left too long
or too often. We finally found heavy duty Magnum kennel panels and these seem to keep Tippy in the
style she insists upon, indoors with bedding and toys in our walkout basement when we are not home.
She is more content with her safe space and runs into it as soon as I open the door, I think having too
much freedom overwhelms her.

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