Escape!

March 10, 2012 (still)
Before we arrived home from Mankato, I had to purchase a dog crate.  While the foster family had said it would be okay to leave her in the car briefly, Miss Dog had NOT made such an agreement!  As soon as I opened my door and tried to get out, she forcefully pushed into my back side and around me, succeeding in jumping out of the car.  She escaped, but only to be grabbed by the collar, walked back over and made to jump back into the the passenger seat.  I closed the door and she cried loudly as I walked away.

When I came back out, with my purchase in hand, she was curled up quiet and content... appearing sweet, innocent and harmless.  Clearly a cover up.  As soon as I opened the hatch back to load the heavy crate into my car, she jumped to her feet, hopped into the back seat and made her way to the open door!  I stupidly assumed that the height of the crate, on top of other boxes in my car would block her from escape!

With my hands occupied, and a six inch clearance between the top of the crate and the ceiling, Miss Dog saw her opportunity!!  She hopped onto the crate and with half of her body still on the seat below, she pushed all of her weight against the crate, as I tried to finagle it into the car.

Determined to get out and much stronger than I realized, Miss Dog eventually pushed her entire body onto the crate. She inched forward, like a soldier in a trench, and soon I had no choice but to let the crate go and use all of my resources to push her large body back into the car.  Unfortunately, she had the advantage of not caring what happened to the crate!

In spite of my frequent and desperate shouting of "No!", she now sat at the edge of the crate, her head in fresh air and her body still in the car.  She appeared to be smiling as her ears flapped in the wind.  At this, her moment of near triumph, I realized the only way I would ultimately win this battle without losing her, was to let her jump out, grab her collar and walk her back to the passenger seat (as we had done earlier).

As she jumped five feet to the ground, one of my arms prevented the crate from falling on top of her, while my other hand grabbed her collar.  Somehow, I secured the crate in the car before walking her back to the  front, making her jump in and closing the passenger door behind her.

Without a moment's hesitation, she jumped to the back seat and made her way toward the open hatch for round two!!  Thankfully, I had anticipated her intentions, and was able to run around the car, push the crate all the way in, and slam the door shut before she could repeat her strategic escape attempt again!

With my dog safely contained in the car, I relaxed long enough to notice that the people parked next to me had been watching the entire fiasco.  Embarrassed, I quickly got into my car and shut the door.  I felt suddenly afraid and deeply regretful that I had adopted this large, strong, and crazy dog.  If I had been overwhelmed when I signed the adoption papers back in Mankato; I was more overwhelmed after preventing her from escape.  I believe I had tears in my eyes, as we drove the rest of the way home.