Bringing Back Sligo

I’m frequently inspired to write about the galoots in my life.  While Marcus tends to be my muse most of the time, occasionally I find inspiration elsewhere.  Today, that inspiration is drawn from ol’ Gus the dog.

Gus is the peeping hound dog that lives at the Cottage with his people:  My brother-in-law and his wife and son.  Gus is a fan of sun bathing, barking at seemingly nothing, sniffing the entire acre and a half, and peeping through our kitchen windows at dinner time (I think he likes to pretend he’s living his old, orphan life to remind himself how good he has it now).  He also will romp for about 10 seconds with Axel and then he’s good for the rest of the day.

Another favorite past time ol’ Gus has is escaping through the front gate every chance he gets.  He has an uncanny ability to be across the yard and know that the gate has been opened.  While our ultimate goal is for the gate to be mechanized it isn’t as of yet and that has proven to be a challenge for keeping Gus contained.  Frequently what happens is, a person unfamiliar with Gus will drive through the gate and fail to close it behind them.  Also, because we like to channel the Clampetts, the gate has to be bungeed closed so that the wind does not blow it open and this is often forgotten which results in an escape.

If you are not familiar with our area we live off of a fairly busy, four lane road.  We chose to fence-in the entire acre and half in order to be able to enjoy it completely and feel that our children and animals are protected.  It turns out, though, that it isn’t our own children or animal that needs protecting because they are trained to stay within their boundaries.  Gus, on the other hand, is just an old boy who was rescued not even knowing how to eat out of a bowl let alone know what a boundary is.

Somehow, he has managed to walk out of the gate and make it across all four lanes of traffic; he’s walked about a mile away to the Bowman Center; I found him one time leading the way for a gentleman through the neighborhood across the street; he’s been found hanging out at Dixon Park; plus, he’s received at least one or two rides home with kind strangers.  It helps that he is a slow mover so I suppose the few times he has crossed in front of traffic it’s like having to stop for a family of geese crossing which gives motorists time to react.

This is all to say that we are working on a solution for containing Gus.  Until then, keep an eye out for a old, plodding hound dog on Dixon.

Gus, the escape artist