Story 82: Breaking Out

As with Laika's days of crate training, when she decided it was time to get out, she would devise a way to do it. No cage was strong enough to keep her from freedom! This became all too apparent during her second stint of medical solitary confinement.

I do not envy the amount of surgeries that Laika needed in her life. It was always sad to see her the first few days of recovery, as the soreness took hold and made her uncomfortable. Still, she always had enormous patience, grace and strength to overcome the steepest odds. When in confinement, though, her patience was tested, as was mine. Keeping her healthy was, at points, a full-time job, but it was both my responsibility and a source of joy. So, we made it through anyway we could.

The first time she was confined, the two areas of surgery (her back and leg) made her a less restless patient. She was excited to just sit with me in her enclosure. I would sleep there with her, too; both of us curled-up in the tiny spot together. The second time in solitary confinement started off this way, but ended quite differently. I figured this would be the case, so more fortifications were added: each side had a metal, locking baby gate with a pressure gate outside of that for good measure.

The first few days, Laika was pretty low-key, laying around and dozing when I didn't have to carry her downstairs because of the splint on her left rear leg. However, after mid-week, the gleam in her eye returned and she wanted to be outside of her enclosure, and I don't blame her!

One day, I came home on my lunch break to find that she had flown into action, putting into effect a plan she had probably been hatching since day one. It wasn't too technical, she simply rammed through both gates into my room, despite wearing a hard plastic cone. What did she do with her newly won freedom? She went to sleep on my bed, of course! Goldilocks was still fast asleep when I returned, happily wagging her tail as she awoke to me entering the room. I was not angry at her at all. I was actually pretty impressed with her headstrong (yes, a pun) method of escape simply to be more comfortable. I even fed her in the shadows of the rubble before taking her out and rebuilding the secure walls.

It was a brazen escape, but the next one attempted was more serious...