We Have an Escapee! Or Do We...

Hey everyone! We’ve got a couple of funny stories to share with you that happened over the last few days. Let’s jump right into it!

Riley’s family owns a greenhouse business called Gooseberry Creek Garden Centers. Each year in late March and early April, we spend several days building the greenhouse structures and benching to prepare for the season. Some of the days can be pretty long, as was the case on Friday.

We had been setting up greenhouses in another town for several hours and knew we wouldn’t be home for a couple more hours at least. I asked my dad to stop by our house on his way home from work (he passes within a mile or two so it’s not super far out of the way) to let the dogs out.

As you may recall, the dogs (Boo especially) are pretty anxious around my dad. We have never figured out why. But, we’ve been trying to work on it in hopes that in emergencies, he could take care of them if need be. Of course dad said he would stop by to let them out, and he had a new plan for it.

When dad got to the house, both dogs were in their crates as always (well…almost always…see the second story for a story on that lol). He said he was taking Pence out first, to show Boo that she will come right back to her cage, unharmed and happy. He took her out back on a leash, because the one time he let her out in the yard without a leash she was too nervous to come back inside. She had no issue going out with him on a leash though and pottied immediately. The goodest girl! They walked back to the crate and she went right back in.

My dad then opened Boo’s crate to put a leash on him and take him outside. Boo was sitting in the very back of the crate to where my dad had to reach in and clip it. Boo refused to move. After a few persuasive gentle nudges, he walked out of the crate and went to the back door. He was a little more skeptical outside compared to Pence, but finally pottied as well. He had no issue running back into his crate when he was done. Good boy!

We’re not sure if Boo seeing Pence go first actually helped or not, but I’m going to say yes! So maybe we’re actually making progress in this ongoing saga between Boo and my dad?? We’ll keep you updated as the story develops…

Our second story is a little more… interesting. We had a little scare with our alarm system. We have a system that includes contact sensors on all the doors and windows, as well as motion sensors inside the house. When the dogs are in the crates and we leave the house, we set the alarm to away mode. This means that all contact and motion sensors are active and will trigger the alarm if they detect motion.

After setting up another greenhouse on Easter morning, we went home for a couple hours to rest up and grab lunch. That evening, we went to Riley’s grandparent’s house for Easter dinner. We packed up what we needed to take and asked the dogs to go into their crates.

We do this by a simple “dogs crate” or “Boo crate” or “Pence crate”. However, they’re very smart and know when we are about to leave and they typically are waiting in their crates before we have to say anything.

Both dogs were in their crates and we left the house. After about a 20 minute drive, we arrived at Riley’s grandparent’s house. A few minutes later, we get a notification on our phones that our back door alarm had been triggered and the sirens were about to go off.

We quickly looked at our camera live views and didn’t see anything strange, but we also couldn’t tell if the back door had been damaged or opened based off the videos. Riley quickly turned on notifications for the indoor motion sensors and right away we receive notifications that motion was detected inside.

At this point, we were like WTF is someone actually inside our house?! Should we call the police?! We’ve never had this happen before. We considered driving back home.

My grandpa lives down the street from us, so I sent him a text to ask him if he would be able to drive by our house and see if he can see anyone walking around inside. I specifically told him NOT to go inside and not to get out of his car.

A couple minutes later, our cameras alerted us that someone was walking around the outside of the house. I pull up the cameras and find my grandpa walking around the yard and checking to make sure all the doors were locked. OMG. I called him right away and asked what he was doing because I told him not to get out of his car and just to drive by!

Well, he said, the sun was glaring on the windows so he couldn’t see inside. Of course, he couldn’t see the back door due to our 6 foot privacy fence. I said ok, well did you see anyone moving around inside the house? He said hang on a second, I’m almost to the guest bedroom window (my office). Then all I hear is “woah!”. I’m like, what is it?!

He said, “ol Boo is staring right back at me when I look through the guest bedroom window!”

I said “Boo?? He should be in his crate in the kitchen area…”

He said “Yep, Boo is right here in the front window.”

I was thinking oh crap, he must’ve gotten out of his crate somehow! Oh well, he does fine alone inside the house, he’ll be fine for a couple hours. I’m just glad it was Boo setting off the sensors and not someone trying to break in! What a relief.

We reset our alarm system but had to set it to home mode since Boo was walking around the house. That evening, we returned home.

We cautiously walked in the door, and found BOTH dogs greeting us in the doorway. Oops. Pence was out of her crate too.

Soooo this means that although both dogs went into the crates when we were leaving, neither Riley or I actually closed and latched their crates lol. This happened one other time when we thought the other person did it.

We are happy to report that there were no accidents in the house and the dogs didn’t mess with anything while we were gone! As I said earlier, we knew Boo would be fine. With Pence still being on the newer side of house life, and being a little bit nosier than Boo, we still opt to crate them when we’re gone for longer periods. Pence will sometimes get a little anxious and pee a little on the floor, but she hasn’t done it in a while. They both did so well!

Since yesterday was April Fools Day, we want to know: what is the best April Fools prank you’ve played on someone or had played on you? Let us know in the comments or reply to the email!

Although it wasn’t on April Fools Day, Pence’s favorite prank on Boo was when she tricked him into going outside so she could steal his bone from his crate!