Ok .. some of you know about this, but it's been such an epic, I thought it was well worth post 501.
Every weekend, and whenever else I can, Freya and I go down to South Beach to walk, play on the beach, and socialise with human and doggy friends. It's about 3km to the beach from our place, so I usually drive, although we've walked a couple of times. I guess she knows how to get there after four years!
A few Mondays ago, we walked at the park across the road before I went to work - normal weekday "couple of times around the oval", which is usually about 30-45 minutes, depending on who's there and how energetic we feel. Freya had just come into season, so she pretty much ignored the ball, and was fixated on sniffing absolutely everything.
I went to work as usual, had a busy day and got home around 6pm. As soon as I came up the driveway, I thought something was wrong - Freya always hears the car and is there waiting for me on the other side of the gate. Not this time. She'd made a hole in the lattice-and-ivy excuse for a fence that was part of our boundary with the next door neighbour, and had escaped through their fence as well.
I called for her, searched around the house, and walked over to the park - nothing. I got in the car and drove around the streets, stopping and calling her name - still nothing. I called Murdoch Vet Clinic Emergency and my local vet, and the rangers of the three councils around us, with no result.
Trying to get an after-hours phone number for one of the rangers, I let beach-friends of ours know that Freya had gone walkabout, and they spent an hour or so driving around looking for her!!!
By that stage I was really worried and went out driving again, in areas we don't usually go, but where I know are the houses of dogs she plays with at the park. Still nothing.
After faffing around on the internet for a while and talking to Slapper, I decided to make some posters and took them down to the beach around 10.30pm to post them around the place, and have another look for Freya in the cool and quiet after sunset. (I thought, if she was there and hiding from ppl, she may come out when it was quiet.) After taping one to a bin, I was driving around to another carpark when I saw a rather shaggy, sandy dog in the headlights. There she was! I called her, opened the back door, and Freya jumped into the back of the car as though nothing had happened.
It turned out that she'd been at the beach since at least 10.30am that morning, as the rangers had been called but couldn't find her. I took her to the vet for a check-up because she'd been limping and had none of her normal bounce. She was given the all clear - just a course of anti-inflammatories to settle down any muscle-strain and help the healing.
Over the last few days, my side fence has been transformed from this (already partly demolished and with a lot of ivy chopped off - it was basically 40 year old lattice held together by creepers) .....
... to this(after quite a few hours of hard work!)...
... to this...my gorgeous new fence!!!
It look very bare, but just needs sealing and staining before I plant that part of the garden again.
Freya has had her nose put out of joint a bit, I think, but she will be safe now.
And... as you can't do something outside without inside improvements... I bought a gorgeous new rug for the dining area, and the old one has gone into the study to make it warmer in winter.
So - big catch up, but I couldn't not post Freya's Big Day Out :*)
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Another quick update.. the ivy after two months. My rat-deterrent worked...
... and found these great cake-collars (I dunno what else you'd call them!) at a local homeware store...
