For The Love Of Dogs....and a Cat

I am sure this is a familiar story. You add a furry companion to your life. Then before you know it you start on that long journey toward  tweaking and modifying everything in your house, yard, and car to accommodate and make things a little bit better or more comfortable or safer for your new little pal. On a long walk with the dogs the other day we were discussing  all the things we have done to accommodate the dogs and cat in our lives. And since we started fostering dogs, many of which are not house trained or have some other behavior we are not accustomed to, we have even gone to more great lengths to accommodate our foster dogs and hopefully make things a bit safer for them and easier for us.

To name just a few things that we have done for our little guys, we have purchased a different vehicle, twice, built fences, put up baby gates (I never in a million years thought I would have baby gates in my home), changed the landscaping so it is more pet friendly, ripped out carpet and put in hard floors, bought cheap area rugs (and put away the nicer ones) so I don't have to worry about pee, poo and other bodily fluids soiling an expensive rug. Put in gates and more gates and even double gates on the entry way porch. I have a bunch of crates of different sizes all over the house and in the cars. I have tons of dog blankets, dog bowls, leashes and harnesses of every size. Toys! I have all these dog toys around the house. These are just a few of the myriad of changes we have made for our love of dogs. Heck I even have a blog to benefit my foster dogs so potential adopters can get a real feel for the dogs in our care.

So we're at it again, make-shifting one more thing in our life to benefit our furry friends.

The latest project is climb proofing our fence. Mr Nash, who's nick name is "monkey-boy" now, decided to scare the bajeezuz out of us the other day by climbing and jumping over the fence to get to our cat Theo. Nash was not being a bad boy, he was being a terrier with a prey drive and it is up to us to keep him AND the cat safe from each other. I bet all of you reading this could tell stories of all of the things you have done to keep your pets, your family members, safe and happy. 

We found a good idea online and so it was off to Lowes to get all the stuff we needed to complete our mission. Keeping dogs safe in the front yard and keeping the cat safe from any rogue foster dogs who haven't learned the lesson that the cat rules and why.

Since the lil monkey cleared the fence going after Theo we have been attached at the hip. I have had to keep him connected to me 100% of the time we are out in the yard as we never want to lose this sweet boy. AND we don't want him to ever come into contact with the wrong end of the cat.

Nash out for a walk in the yard....yup still looking for Mr Theo

This the the original fence (the one that Nash cleared), 4ft high, looking in the yard from the driveway.

Here you can see our project part way complete. Wire mesh attached to the top of the fence and leaning in to prevent jumping or climbing over.

It isn't exactly the look I had in mind, but if I don't have to worry about a foster dog getting out, it is worth having my yard look a bit like a prison yard :) Besides it will act as a nice arbor for our climbing roses and when the shrubs grown in more it won't be that noticeable....I keep telling myself this anyhow.

This is the way it looks from in the yard looking out

Here is another example of adjusting our landscaping for the dogs. This looks like your basic reed screen but oh it is so much more. This is to help create harmony between us and our neighbors. On the other side is a 4' fence like the rest of the yard. We put up a layer of reed screen a couple of years ago to offer some privacy but the dogs, SKIP, could still see movement through it so would bark like crazy at our poor neighbors and getting all the other dogs to do the same. So now we have a layer of landscape fabric sandwiched between a second layer of reed fencing. It seems to be working and I am sure our neighbors are much happier being out in their lovely yard without 6 dogs barking like maniacs at them, I know I would be.

Little Sierra looking up at me and getting ready to try the new path we have put in so that the dogs will actually go potty outside when it is wet outside, BIRDIE. With all the dogs going up and down the steps it was getting pretty muddy and certain dogs, even though they will walk on hikes in the mud and rain without a care in the world, thought they should just go potty on the porch, hey it's dry! So we just put this path in to see if it would help. They can potty on it and it can be cleaned up easily. Truth be told, we wanted to do this anyhow, but I like to blame things on the dogs. LOL

When Moon was with us, she scared us a couple of times trying to scoot by the upper gate, so we makeshifted a lower gate for now to help prevent escapes. Skip is checking out the new situation.

Nash getting to rest without a care in the world. He almost didn't make it out of the shelter alive. We will go to any lengths to make sure he is safe and sound in our home so he can stay in one piece and be adopted into his perfect fit forever home where he will make someone very very happy to have such a sweet and silly little monkey boy.