Rosa has been doing pretty well since she moved in. She likes the backyard, made friends with the dog next door, loves going for walks, and had her first vet appointment last week. She even got to meet Jeb and Kathy yesterday. One thing about her is that she will take food wherever she can get it, so you can’t take your eye off your own food and I have had to move the garbage can to the utility room so she can’t get to it.
Today I got home from work at the usual time and Austin was glad to see me. But no Eric, and no Rosa. I figured they might be on the back patio, so I let Austin out and we went over to see Eric. No Rosa. I said “Where’s Rosa?” and Eric said he had texted me as soon as he got home at 1:00 asking if she was at the vet or something (I never got the text). So he had been home for 5 hours and hadn’t seen her. I don’t see how she could have gotten out of the house, but she is microchipped and I just got her a new collar with a collar tag with my name and phone number on it which she has been wearing for a couple of days. I looked in my room, the living room, the kitchen, and then I remembered I had some fried chicken yesterday and threw the bones in the garbage. I bet she was in the utility room somehow. I opened the door of the utility room and there she was. The utility room is pretty small, so she had pushed her way in (door may not have latched or I just forgot to close it), but when she knocked the garbage can over, it shut the door on her. I’m sure she enjoyed the chicken bones and whatever else was in that garbage can. I guess Austin had the house to himself today.
She was probably ok being in your utility room for the day. That’s a luxury pen for her!
Yesterday Eric called me when he got home and said the back door was propped open and the dogs were gone. I had propped the door open because Austin’s stomach was bothering him that morning and I wanted him to be able to get outside, but I wasn’t sure how Rosa would handle this (when I first tried this with Katie she would bring pine cones in from outside and chew them up in the house). He walked around outside and checked the adjacent back yards of the neighbors, calling for both of the dogs, but no dice. None of the backyard gates were open and I checked our neighborhood bulletin board to make sure there were no reports of dogs on the loose. Also both dogs have collar tags with my phone number and I hadn’t gotten any calls (both dogs are also microchipped). After a while I asked if he had checked the utility room. He said he should probably have checked that first and went back in the house and *both* dogs were very happy to see him. They enjoyed some pizza crusts and the leftovers of a bag of expired Bisquick. I need to do a better job of making sure that door is closed before I leave the house.