Thwarting Badger's bid for freedom

Badger the beagle was within a whisker of being returned to the Dogs Home this weekend. After an extremely difficult week when he escaped multiple times – I know, I know, beagles are renowned for their wanderlust - we'd had enough and I had gone so far as to book an appointment to return him.

It was a tough decision and not made lightly as he's a lovely dog in so many ways, but his determination to escape quite possibly is why he'd been surrendered to the Dogs Home twice before. This characteristic simply isn’t on in an area where there are farms and livestock and every second property has a few chooks.

After some discussion and deliberation we decided to give him one last try, so after initially posting on the community Facebook page thanking neighbours for the care and concern so many had showed for our notorious recalcitrant - and all the phone calls and messages to say he’d just been spotted going past -I let slip his time was up.

The universal relief when I later said there'd been a change of plan and the truant was being given a final - and I did mean final - chance, was extraordinary.

So Badger spent two nights and one and a bit days locked up while we figured out the best option to secure the fences even more than they already were. And in the doing of that forensic scrutiny found two of his possible escape routes. Who knew beagles could squeeze and wriggle their way out of a space that looked way too small? Shows how determined Badger was to hit the open road.

Needless to say the Boy wasn't happy to be so thoroughly restricted and supervised. He was only allowed out briefly for his usual walks, and intermittent ‘comfort’ breaks - while  always on a lead. So far, so good.

John's done an amazing job securing the fence line even more with rolls of wire specifically designed to keep a dog contained. Fort Knox has nothing on this section of the property. Badger is puzzled. He cannot understand how his bid for freedom has been curtailed.

But fingers crossed he will now accept his lot, (which compared to so many dogs is pretty damn good!) and be satisfied with a couple of good walks a day. If not . . . .