This morning was more than a bit chaotic here at the little homestead. A storm warning came up yesterday calling for high winds and rain for the next few days so we brought in most of the Halloween decor until it passes, just to be safe and not sorry.

Then we decided to try and separate out the male pheasants who are all mature now and ready to have their own space so they don’t murder each other.

While we were doing that, Tonka managed to find a chink in the armor of our husky fortress and escaped, running right past us, which caused all the other huskies to let loose with their built in alarm systems to alert us that he was out and they weren’t and they weren’t happy about that injustice.

It sounded something like this.

Only louder.

An escape hasn’t happened in a couple of years, but when it does it is a rather big deal since as you probably know, huskies like to run.

And run.

And run some more.

Sometimes we’re lucky and they will just head to the poultry pens and focus on trying to make friends there until we catch them but of course Tonka took off like a shot, down the street and around the corner, setting off all the other neighborhood dog alarms along the way.

It actually helped us to be able to find which direction to head by listening to the ruckus he created as he made his escape.

Our main concern is that we aren’t the only ones with livestock around here. Our neighbors keep everything from chickens to sheep to miniature donkeys to peacocks to horses, so there’s plenty of trouble for a husky to get into, if they so choose.

And it’s not against the law for a landowner to shoot to kill if a dog is attacking livestock, which is understandable. I probably wouldn’t do that myself, but that’s just me. Chickens and ducks and pheasant can be replaced.

Well, maybe not Fred, he’s pretty special.

Still, not everyone feels the way I do so we jumped in the buggy and took off after him, going around and around the block and eventually catching up with him about a quarter of mile away. It took us nearly two hours of chasing after him and we’re lucky he stayed in the general vicinity instead of heading for the hills.

I’m sure he’d love it up there with all the deer he could, you know, “make friends” with!

It was pretty stressful having a pack member on the run like that so we have to make sure it doesn’t happen again.

Ever!

Ha.

This is why a lot of sled dogs are kept chained to a barrel when they aren’t hooked to a sled or a buggy but we don’t want to do that, so we’ll just have to keep making the armor on our fortress as escape proof as possible.