Gates

My son’s dog, Dogmatyx, has become quite the escape artist.

This is the dog who’s afraid of heights, and won’t step over a 12″ high fence.

He’s discovered his strength, though, and found that while he won’t go over such a fence, he can go under or through them. And so that’s exactly what he’s been doing with the gate into the backyard.

At first, he simply unlatched the gate. I shut it with a carabiner. He bent the carabiner enough to open the latch. I tied the latch down with bungee cords and a heavier gauge carabiner. He chewed the cords off and bent the heavier carabiner, too, and opened the latch. I bought a heavy gauge twisted wire cable, twisted it through the fence and latched it with a double clip.

That stopped him from opening the latch. It’s not easy to get into the yard through that, but it kept him in the yard a few days.

Then, he bent and broke the wires holding the chain from the chain link fencing of the gate off and pushed his way out. I re-wired with a slightly heavier gauge wire. He broke those off as well and pushed his way out.

I bought galvanized steel clips, a heavy gauge twisted wire rod, threaded the rod through the chain links, clipped them with the inch wide galvanized steel clips, and am now daring him to find a way through that.

Fortunately, I cemented the walkway under the gate area a long time ago, so digging, at least, won’t be one of his responses.

I guess, if he manages to get through this fix, I ill have to buy a new gate. A heavy duty, maximum security, you-are-locked-away-for-life, type gate. I will have my son’s father forge it to my specifications on his big coal forge. I have a design in mind…

Why, why am I cursed/blessed with clever, brilliant animals?