The Abi Saga Continues

As I sit here typing, I can see a lawn across the street.

It's so pretty and green.

That bright, new springy green.

The grass is full and thick.

Aaaand then I see our yard.

I hope our yard is looking at their yard thinking "I want to be like that when I grow up."

Because that's what I'm thinking.

Our yard is a little sad.

We have more weeds than grass in the front, and grass that's waaaay too long in the back.

Kinda like a mullet yard.

With spring being upon us, our outdoor goals are simple.

1. Pull weeds.

2. Encourage the grass to grow in better.

3. Plant a vegetable garden.

And #3 is where our story begins.

The photo above is of our garden. We put a fence around it last year to keep Abi out.

As you can see, that didn't work out so well.

Oh, we thought it would work.

It seemed promising for a long time.

Little did we know, Abi was just taking her sweet time plotting how to conquer the fence.

Then one day, she did it.

She leapt straight over the fence like it was put there just to give her something entertaining to jump over.

She hasn't looked back since. She jumps it multiple times a day, every day.

We've tried telling her no.

We've tried a shock collar.

We want a garden.

If Abi can get in it, there will be no garden.

She eats poop.

There.

I said it.

We figure if she eats poop, she'll probably eat whatever is growing in our garden.

We have to find a way to keep her out.

We've thought for months about a plan.

We knew spring was coming.

We thought about changing the fence pickets to 4 feet instead of 3. We don't think she can clear 4 feet.

We already paid for one fence.

We're not made of money here.

So we thought about replacing just half of the fence pickets to 4 feet.

Still more money than we have for a fence.

So we talked other options.

What if we put something up to discourage her?

Something that she'll look at and not even try to jump?

A visual barrier, if you will.

See what she does before we invest money in fixing the fence.

We had some stakes and clothesline in the garage.

Matt screwed the stakes into the posts and we strung the clothesline a foot above the fence.

Then we had to test it.

We let Abi out in the yard.

Matt got in the car to drive down the alley.

See, Abi normally terrorizes whoever is in the alley, including cars.

She bounds over the fence and throws her body into the corner of the yard where the chainlink and wood fence come together.

She barks her head off.

She looks like she'll push the fence down to get whoever is in the alley.

People have been walking down the alley, seen our dog about to eat them alive, stopped and stood there in the middle of the alley paralyzed with fear.

Then we shock her with her shock collar, she jumps out of the garden and the people cautiously hurry past our house.

If she actually did get to the people, she'd probably just lick them and jump around like she found her new best friend.

They don't know that.

All that to say, we knew the alley was the way to test her.

While Matt was driving around to the alley, I watched Abi from the house.

She walked around the fence.

She looked up at the fence.

Up to the clothesline.

She looked back at the house.

Almost like she was saying "Watch this."

Matt pulls down the alley.

Abi is near the house.

She sees Matt coming down the alley.

Abi is in position.

She begins to run.

She has to build up speed after all.

She takes a leap.

The clothesline breaks like a finish line.

She's in the garden.

Matt drives back down the alley.

Abi jumps out the other side of the fence, and this time makes it in between the fence and the part of the clothesline that's still tied up.

Just jumps right through the middle without getting caught on either the fence or the clothesline.

Matt came back and we went to assess the situation.

We noticed Abi wasn't wearing her collar.

We began to look for it.

We searched through our mullet grass.

Not there.

Then Matt saw it.

It was on the clothesline.

Wrapped around it.

Multiple times.

How?

Maybe the force with which she grazed the clothesline pulled her collar off and swung it around and around the clothesline like a tetherball on a pole.

Maybe Abi left it there on purpose as her mark.

A mark to say she's conquered our visual barrier and won with flying colors.

Don't worry though.

This story has a happy ending.

We have another plan.

We will outsmart our dog.

We will have a garden.

We will.

Right?