Houdini Strikes Again

The fence company returned to finish installing the fence about a week ago.  We were not expecting them as it had rained hard a couple of days before and the ground was still wet.  But they were able to work around that.  They parked in the drive and carried all the slates to the backyard.

We had to confess that Frankie ate their instructions but fortunately the installers just laughed and went to work anyways.  The installers apparently do not hold a grudge either because when Frankie wandered in to join them they welcomed him with open arms.  

In the week since installation, we have tested out our fence.  It works great at keeping Mable home.  We have it locked all night and in the morning until Mike is ready to drive Mabel over to doggy day care otherwise known as Frank and Lois's home.  Once Mabel is gone, we open the gate in the fence and the remaining four dogs have the run of the backyard and doggy door in the basement.  When Mabel returns in the evening we close the fence so she will not run back to doggy day care.  

All dogs are using the gate and basement doggy door as intended with one exception.  When we are gone for extended periods of time during the day we shut the four dogs remaining at our house in the backyard.  They still have access to the house because we leave the doggy door open.  They can go upstairs and downstairs and are only blocked from the kitchen and living area by a gate which is always up.  Blackie either finds this too confining or has never met a fence he cannot escape.  When we come home we often find him in the front yard waiting for us.  

As Blackie knows a good thing when he sees it, we are not worried about him running away.  I guess overall we can say that the backyard fence is a success at keeping our dogs safe.