Alien Abduction

Last night I got home late. There was an accident on the highway that I travel and I sat in traffic for what seemed like forever. I had planned when I got home to reorganize the area where I’ve been keeping the puppies and Midge. It was hard to keep clean and I knew it was only going to be a matter of time before the puppies would be either crawling or pushing over the 2.5 foot lattice that I had been using to keep them confined.

As soon as I got home, I let Midge and Gel out of their runs, checked on the puppies, then ran back in the house to clean and reorganize the puppy area. As soon as I got in the house, the cats converged into the kitchen looking for their dinner. I took the large bowl of ground rabbit out of the refrigerator and put it down for them. I was in a rush to clean and get the puppies in the house and situated. I had planned to start clicker work with them once they were in the house.

Once I got the floor washed, a tarp and then puppy pads laid down I went outside and gathered up the puppies. It was getting dark. Previously, I had been able to carry them all in a bunch in a large litter pan. Well, that doesn’t work now. I’d put one in, grab another and put it in, at the same time, the first one I put in climbed out, then the second climbed out, you get the picture. So I carried them into the house two at a time; put them down in the kitchen and went back out for the rest of them.

Once I had all the puppies in the house, I attempted to fence them into their area. I do not have x-pens. I had hoped I could encircle the area with a large section of welded wire. I had used this wire to encircle the kiddy pool when they were in that. I thought I could make a circle with the wire and clasp it shut. It didn’t work.

Meanwhile, the previously calm, not-too-active puppies were in the process of tearing the house apart. They got into the kitchen and discovered the bowl of rabbit. The cats scattered in all directions wondering where the heck this herd of noisy, short-legged, black and white creatures came from. In the bowl of rabbit, there were several unground pieces that I had saved for Midge. Two of the puppies had removed one of the largest pieces out of the bowl and were in the process of dragging it across the kitchen in tandem, growling and snarling all the while.

Every time I put the puppies into what I thought would hold them, they got out. They were grabbing hold of my pant legs, weaving between my legs, chasing each other around and around in circles, making a mess of my previously well-arranged layers of tarp and puppy pads. Not to mention, the wire that I was trying to use kept tipping over, probably due to puppies sticking their heads through it.

Did I mention it was hot? Even though I had the air conditioning on during the day, I keep it at above 80 degrees, which is comfortable if you are not doing anything, but given that I was trying to corral five rambunctious puppies, I was soon sweating like a pig.

I tried to put up the same arrangement which had kept the puppies confined yesterday (the lattice), but that got tipped over in record time. By the time 8:30 rolled around and I was unable to confine the puppies, I carried them back outside and put them in the run with their mother. I surely didn’t want to do it, but unless I could securely confine them, I had no choice.

I want to know which alien abducted the puppies who were previously so easy to manage and replaced them with a pack of Tasmanian Devils.

This morning I dragged in four sections of cattle panel that were each eight feet long and four feet high. In case you don’t know what cattle panels are, they are one of the most marvelous inventions known to man, right up there with those zip cable ties. Cattle panels are heavy wire with six inch by six inch squares. They work great to make a small enclosure to confine livestock, you can make hoop houses out of them and you can also make puppy confinement pens, if you are creative. Of course the puppies could go through six by six inch holes, but I took the welded wire that I was trying to confine them with last night and attached that wire to the cattle panels with cable zip ties. I then made a square out of the panels and tied them together at all four corners. I figure if cattle panels can hold cattle, they have to be able to hold puppies, even if they have become Tasmanian Devils.

I uploaded a couple of videos of Midge and one of Gel on sheep at Youtube. It’s a darned good thing no one was videotaping me last night as it would have been an excellent video to send on to America’s Funniest Videos show.