It's Been A Bit Of A Day...

[megpie71]

A bit of background. About a month ago, we had a big storm through which took out the dividing fence between our home and the home our of neighbours on the right-hand side of the house (as you face toward the street). Said neighbours (Dog-Owner, Girlfriend, and House-Owner, for short) have a dog - a young Staffy (Staffordshire terrier). She's a very active, social dog, and she usually plays with Girlfriend's two kids. Having the fence come down was a godsend for her, because it meant she had a whole new playground (our back yard). Which would have been fine, except that our lease specifies "no pets".

House-Owner and Dog-Owner put together a temporary fence between their yard and ours - basically a bit of garden mesh wiring, and some lightweight pickets to hold things in place. This worked fine until yesterday.

I have my suspicions about why it suddenly failed yesterday. Basically, over the past weekend, Dog-Owner, Girlfriend and the kids have been off on holiday (or something similar). They left the dog behind. She's a smart dog, and a social dog, and she knows the kinds of noises and movements which mean that my partner and I are home. So after spending a long, lonely day on Saturday, she decided on Sunday to come over and play with us. She found a way under the fence, and once I'd blocked that off, found another way, and another, and another. We blocked off as many of the "ways under" the fence that we could, but that didn't stop her - instead, she tried to come over the fence (and damn near injured herself doing so).

We gave up, and moved part of the fence so she can get between our yard and her yard safely (without injury). I tried to get the neighbours to come and help with this, but since they were all away (as I guessed), there wasn't any answer. We checked their carport (where she sleeps) and found her dog bed and blankets, but no food or water. Last night was supposed to be a very cold night (3C minimum, according to the forecast) and we were worried about her. We supplied her with some dog food (at her place), and I scrubbed up a plant saucer and filled it with water for her to drink on our side of things.

Today, she's still spending most of her time over on our side of the fence. I checked her collar, and sent a text message to the phone number on there (so her owners are aware of what's going on). What I discovered from that worries me even more - apparently not all of our neighbours were supposed to be away this weekend. House-Owner was supposed to be home, even though he sleeps through the days most days. Problem is, I know this guy has epilepsy - he mentioned it to me when we met each other after the original fence went down. So now I'm worried silly because the best explanation I can think of for why the dog was so damn lonely it came over here is that House-Owner had a bad fit on Saturday or Saturday night, and has been lying unconscious ever since.

Girlfriend is supposed to be arriving home sometime today, and Dog-Owner is supposed to be getting home from work sometime this afternoon. But I can't help but worry.

Update 5.30pm - A friend/employer of House-Owner has turned up, saying he hasn't heard from House-Owner since about Friday. Cue immediate panic from me, because I immediately jump to worst possible conclusion. House-Owner's friend talks me down a bit (or at least persuades me not to call the ambos because that would cost too damn much). Express a fervent hope that House-Owner isn't in contact with anyone because hey, he's headed out to a club, met someone nice, and has been off getting his end away for the past 72 hours. House-Owner's friend thought the most likely explanation was that House-Owner was off staying with his Dad.

Update 7.45pm: Dog-Owner and Girlfriend are back. Home-Owner is fine. Turns out that Dog-Owner and his Girlfriend both work on the weekends (and Mondays) and spend that time at Dog-Owner's house somewhere else in town, and stay down here with House-Owner during the week. House-Owner broke his phone a short while back, which may be why nobody's heard from him. Asked them to get House-Owner to speak to his friend, because I'd told him I'd be in contact once we knew what was going on. Shall send a txt msg to him myself in order to ensure the message gets through.

Basically, I'm feeling massively relieved all 'round that nothing too terrible has happened. Mind you, I'm going to be asking them where they store the dog food just in case something similar happens next weekend.