The Suspect Had Brown Fur

Those of you that have kept up with us for the past few years know that we initially had a lot of trouble with our dog, Hudson. She was a rescue of sorts – bounced from place to place before finally ending up with us. We quickly discovered that she had all sorts of “emotional” problems stemming from separation anxiety. Within a week of her arrival, she had decided to remove all the carpet from the base of the stairs in our bonus room. This was an obvious desperate ploy to dig out of the room. Too bad for her we live on a slab. She also learned how to open doors with her paw!

A few weeks after we adopted Hudson, we decided that she would simply have to be crate trained. Wade and I quickly realized that a dog with separation anxiety does not agree with being crate trained. We endured many nights of her howling and barking. Her crate had been in our sunroom and one day we came home from work and she greeted us at the door. Her supposed steel crate lay mangled in the sunroom, the plastic base completely destroyed. We were desperate because not only would she escape her confines, but she would mark her territory while we were gone. Wade and I took her to Petsmart to return the crate that they had told us was strong enough for our neurotic dog. They politely told us that our dog had “issues”. Our vet recommended using Children’s Benadryl to calm her down during the day. Unfortunately, Hudson reacted to the Benadryl as if it were speed. It made her crazy and her escapes from the crate happened even more quickly.

After several weeks of using zip ties to keep the old crate held together (and her consistently daring escapes), we decided to get a stronger airline crate and that she would just have to stay out in the garage. We were wise to her tricks by this point. As much as we loved Hudson, we were determined to keep her in that crate while we were at work or out running errands. We used a tie-down strap from Wade’s truck to reinforce the door to the crate and hoped for the best.

For the most part, the reinforced crate has worked. She has only made it out a few times, usually when we have a friend check on her if we’re out of town and they don’t know how tight we keep the straps. Most people underestimate her strength and determination, like we did! We gave her the nickname of “Houdini”.

It has been a while since Hudson managed to get out of her crate …

On Sunday, Wade and I went to run errands. We put Hudson in her crate, secured everything and went out our way. When we returned home less than three hours later, we opened the garage door. Wade said “Wow – she moved the crate! Look at that!” I walked around to the front of the crate, which was still secured – door shut and locked, strap tight. Except Hudson was not in the crate! Wade and I start spinning around looking for the dog. We thought maybe she ran out of the garage when the door opened and we just did not see her. But by now, she would have been all over us. Wade turned around and noticed that the door leading to the house was barely cracked. I went and opened the door, and Hudson was sitting in the foyer with her tail wagging, as if to say “What took you guys so long?”

How on earth did this happen? The crate looked as though nothing had changed. All we can figure is that the strap wasn’t in just the right place and she hit the door with enough force to bow out the bottom and squeeze (and I do mean squeeze) out. But how did she get into the house? The door was shut! Wade saw that there were some obvious claw marks on the door frame. Hudson clearly managed to open the door with her paw again. Thankfully, she went into the house and did not destroy anything or mark her territory.

I suppose this is what we get for having a dog that is apparently smarter than us. But we do think that this was one of her more humorous successful escapes simply because we were so stunned that she made it into the house. And at least she had the sense to close the door behind her.

Coming Soon –
Pictures of a miraculous nature!