If you thought there is no way that Señor Piglet is going to get his fat ass under the fence, you’d be wrong.
Just after Christmas, we were on dusk patrol, when Sparky disappeared. That area is on the other side of the creek, and is about a third of the way up the hill. He likes sniffing around there because it’s in the rough, so may hold mice and gets animal traffic. I stay at the bottom of the hill, to provide flashlight overwatch. I was scanning for coyotes, and when I looked back, he was gone.
I’d have seen him if he went anywhere besides through the fence, so it only took a second to figure it out. Sparky didn’t dig the trench, and it wasn’t there before. He wasn’t hard to find.
Sparky had a through-the-looking-glass expression on his mug. He’d been over there once before, and it was a horrible, prickery experience for me, and not great for him. Now, it was cold and he didn’t have any good ideas for where to go. Sparky was about ten feet down the hill and a short distance from the fence.
When I called, Sparky came over to the fence, I grabbed his leash and considered the best way to extract him. Going over the fence would be dangerous for everybody. There was a lot of brush between him and the creek, so I led him back to the trench.
Getting him under the fence while he wore his Inspector Gadget coat wasn’t working. I hitched his leash to his collar and removed his coat. Even that was a challenge. Sparky knows how to Army crawl, but forgot. Trying to push his butt down didn’t remind him, but just stiffened his resolve.
Recalling the ancient wisdom, “softly softly catchee monkey”, I kept a light tension on the leash, and let Sparky figure out the rest.
There is still work to be done on the other side of the fence, so Sparky has tried to go through again. When he is wearing his jacket, it is a slow process, so I will just keep an eye on him until it gets warm enough to block that exit.