After the brute force escape, I knew it was only a matter of time until Laika tried again. It didn't take too long...a few days at most. It was in the evening when I was working my second/third job to help cover the bills until the pet insurance paid their share. The result of this near escape was not so good for poor Laika, though.
My roommate Bradley was living with us at the time, which was awesome because he would take time to sit with Laika on days when I had to work almost all day. She loved him and I'm sure was happy with the companionship in her small enclosure. One evening, however, I received a text at work that Laika had attempted a breakout by somehow pulling the hallway side metal gate in. She had failed to release herself. He straightened-out the gate and I didn't think much of it, aside from wondering how she had done it.
Upon returning now, nothing seemed amiss. Laika was excited to see me and sat wagging her tail with her plastic cone-haloed face pressed against the bars of the gate. At the top of the stairs, I did find a piece of what I thought was a toenail. So, I figured she tried to pull the gate in with her paw and it broke-off. After inspecting her paws, this was obviously not the case.
Her happiness led to the grime discovery, as her wry smile exposed the truth of her escape attempt. She had pulled with her mouth and snapped her remaining canine tooth on the right side completely down to the gum! She didn't seem to care, but I was worried about infection. At this point, I remember throwing my phone randomly in frustration, which didn't help anything and I immediately regretted. I was more upset that Laika would need another treatment and was now missing another tooth!
Luckily, she was able to eat. We saw the dentist a few days later, who could not believe the actions of Laika, the canine banana-peel. Again, we were lucky, because the tooth didn't need to be removed, only bonded. A true relief. The treatment was quick and painless for Laika, who still had some time left in solitary confinement for her poor leg! I figured this would calm her down, but this was another underestimation of her determination.
With only a few days left of wearing her splint, I arrived home on my lunch break to find her waiting patiently for me by the backdoor. Wiggling wildly and hobbling around as I entered. She had had enough and just pushed down the gates and came downstairs on her own. Given the dangers of her on the stairs, I figured it best to just confine her to the first floor until the time was up. She had won! It wasn't worth any more risks to her physical or mental health.
She ended-up healing completely, but it was a long several weeks to say the least. I was just happy that her mood had improved so much that she wanted to challenge the rules, but at the same time, she was now without any canine teeth on the right side of her mouth. This led to an unexpected danger...for me!
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