Dog Tags!

Guys, I totally got dog tags for $4 each today, with no shipping costs. So excited, because they are the nice sterling ones that include name, address and phone number (so just in case any of the neighbors don't know our dogs/frantic screams/cars by heart now, they at least have an address and phone number to get the dog back to if one gets out). We also put a huge padlock on our gate latch, and nailed the weird random board with the hinge shut this weekend after a neighbor kid came by, played with it, and let Lily out!

We did get Lily back. The neighbors saw what happened, chased the other dogs back into the fence and shut it, then chased Lily down. We knew she was gone within a minute or so, met the neighbors outside, and they told Jeff that the kids are opening the fence, not the utility men like we suspected. I was really scared to find Lily missing and the fence shut. I thought someone had stolen her! We don't really live in the kind of neighborhood where you'd expect that to happen, but you never know... Mandy's story from a few months ago scared the s### out of me.

Anyway, all is well. Everyone is LOCKED in and we're now a safe and secure dog yard again. I really thought we had dealt with everything after the first time by calling the utilities and such, but who knew our culprit was a child? According to the neighbors this has not been isolated to our gate, either. Well, unless we have a kid in the neighborhood who can remove nails, break down boards or bust/pick locks we are in good shape... and fortunately I think our culprit has just been a young, curious kid with bad parents. You know, the kind who goes out with no supervision and thinks "Wow, let's go to the house with the cute dogs in the backyard and open the gate." In fact, I am wondering if our culprit happens to be the girl who we found cuddling Marcy in our front yard the last time the dogs got out. Maybe, maybe not. Either way, it will not be happening again. Our backyard is on lock down. And our pooches have ID tags!