adventures.

This fostering rescues thing, its a bit of an adventure.

Last night, Scooter got out of the fence. I realized this when I went to bring the dogs in after about 20 minutes outside, and only two came in. I know he's capable of jumping the fence, but given that he hasn't even looked like he considered it over the past week and a half, I figured it was safe to leave outside for short periods of time with my supervision. After I drove around looking for a good 30 minutes, I got the call that someone had found him one street over.

Today, I figured out exactly how he got out of the fence - in between the pickets (one is half-broken) in the gate, in a space Dakota can't squeeze through, but Scooter can because he's skinnier than she is.

I was sitting right there, I saw him do it, and I just grabbed the bag of treats I was using for training Dakota, and ran after him.

I chased him for forty minutes, all through out the neighborhood, until he was finally tired enough to sit when I told him and let me get close enough to grab his collar.

At this point, a man working on a nearby house had been trying to help me catch him, but Scooter was too fast for us to corner him.

Faced with the prospect of having to walk several blocks hunched over with my hand on his collar (I hadn't grabbed a leash, and kept following him as long as he was in my sights), I asked the man if he had a rope I could use.

He came back with a rope that I threaded through the ring on Scooter's collar, and it promptly broke, and Scooter went running after a squirrel.

This was the point where I swore.

Luckily, he was running onto the grassy area just before a dock, which was surrounded by a retaining wall. The man went one way, I went the other and he said, "Now we've got him - he can't go anywhere." I was doubtful because I knew that Scooter could jump the wall, but one can hope, right?

Wrong. With his head up watching a squirrel in a tree above him, Scooter leaped right over the wall.

Right into the Elizabeth River.

Fortunately, it was pretty shallow there. Scooter could have walked right up on to the bank a few feet away, but was so surprised to be wet, that he just held still. I was trying to brace myself to walk into the water (and if you know me and how I feel about fish, you'll understand that is a very big deal), but the man climbed down onto a little ledge, hauled him up by his collar, and passed him to me.

Then we got another rope, checked it carefully to make sure it was strong enough, and we walked home.