I Think Our Backyard Is Haunted

[hodge]

This is really weird. We have a large fenced-in backyard. We're dogsitting Gunner tonight and while I was napping earlier, my husband let him out and when he went to let him back in, he couldn't find him.. Finally, he saw Gunner on the other side of the fence. No gate had been opened. He just somehow got out of the yard. He came right into the house when he saw my husband.

This happened one other time, about a month ago. We had let him out at night and couldn't find him when we went to let him back in. We searched the backyard with a flashlight. We went out driving and looked all over for him, even though neither of the gates were open. When we got back from looking for him, he was standing on our back porch, waiting to be let in.

This is very weird. I'm afraid to let him out at night. Where the heck does he go? Is there some wormhole or something in our back yard? I am half serious about this, guys. We can't figure this out.

 

[Ed Norton]

He may have dug a little passage

 

[hodge]

We haven't found one. He's a big dog, 100 lbs, that would be very noticeable.

 

[hodge]

It's as if he goes into a black hole or something. And then comes out again. We have no frigging idea how this happens.

 

[hodge]

The next time he's going outside will be after his breakfast, probably around 5 or 6 in the morning, and I'm going out there with him. I'm not letting him out of my sight.

 

[Friday]

My lab used to open & close the gate, himself. Dagnabit! I bought a lawn ornament, not an escape artist, for a reason! Silly me.

My huskies/hybrids? Pfft. They'd open gates, use platforms to jump over, dig out, wiggle through absurdly narrow places (I have no bones!), all kinds of tricks. Essentially they looked at fences as; Challenge. Accepted.

Even with 3' of rabbit wire dug underneath, and a 10' fence, with bungee cords on all the gates? The kind of dogs I get on with, I've learned to never leave outside alone. They think my territory is much too small, and needs expanding. Whether we're talking garden plot or miles. They have my best interests at heart, really. After all? I was kind enough to build them such a fun obstacle :smug:

 

[Neverthesame]

How tall is the fence?

Are there any low spots, or objects near the fence the dog could use to jump from?

Is the latch on either gate accessible to the dog and could the dog possibly operate it?

If none of the above, then yeah I would say wormhole, or perhaps a large possibly believed extinct species of flying dinosaur. A pterodactyl for example.

 

[hodge]

It's four feet high, chain link fence. Nothing like that near our fence.

I've never seen Gunner be able to operate the gate mechanism. And he has no reason to want to get out. He loves it here.

Pterodactyl is as good an explanation as any, lol.

Like I said, I'm going outside with him next time, and I'm going to make sure he doesn't get out.

 

[Neverthesame]

wiggle through absurdly narrow places (I have no bones!)

Haha. Yes, this. I had a cat years ago while I was standing in my garage smoking a cigarette. I heard this scraping sound coming from the corner of the big automatic door. The door was locked down by it's mechanism but there was a gap about the size of a 50 cent piece.

I see a paw come through followed by another. Then a head starts coming through, I'm horrified. I thought there is no way a cat could fit through that, someone must have killed it and was stuffing it under the door. Nope.

Head pops out... Meow!
Soon followed by the rest of the cat. Which then walked over to me like nothing was strange. Lol! Strangest thing I've ever seen a cat do. If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes I'd never believe it. I still barley believe it.

 

[hodge]

Lol, Neverthesame. That is weird!

 

[hodge]

Hubby just came up with a good idea. We're going to get chain locks for both the gates. So if someone is letting Gunner out, they will be deterred by that, hopefully.

 

[hodge]

I can't imagine anyone in our neighborhood doing such a thing, though. I suppose some one might, but why??