Mischief's Great Escape

Let me start with the statement that she is home and safe so that you don't worry as you read through this.

Mischief loves going outside. We have leashed trained her so that we can indulge this love for her. We don't let her out on her own because she will not leave a collar around her neck for long plus she can't find her way home and we live on a busy street. DH took our oldest boy Smokey with him to return the DVDs last night because Smokey loves to ride in the car. Mischief became very angry about this and stood at the door howling until DH came home. To make it up to her, he then put on her harness and leash to take her for a walk.

They were gone for quite a while but I didn't think much of it because she really loves to walk outside. I finished an ornament that I was working on and started another. I heard an urgent loud knock and the door and got up to answer the door. I was a little annoyed because we have people trying to sell us tamales all the time and I figured this was the same thing or someone who had the wrong apartment. When I opened the door the first thing I saw was DH's face which had blood on it. I then looked down to see that he had mud and leaves all over him and that he was holding a leash-free Mischief who was also covered in mud and leaves and that there was blood dripping from DH's right hand. I of course opened the door wide and let them in right away.

DH dropped Mischief onto the floor and she promptly fled under the couch. I took DH into the bathroom to clean him up and tend to his wounds. As I was doing this he told me what happened.

They had been walking along and Mischief had tried to go into the street (something she has never done before) but he pulled her back. She tried several times to go across the street but DH wouldn't let her. They were walking along an area that has a wall and a drop off. Mischief likes to walk along the wall and look down. She's done this many times. Well last night she decided that it wasn't really that far down and jumped. As she landed the harness slipped off of her. When she heard DH call her name, she realized she was loose and made a run for it. The first place she went was of course across the street much to DH's panic. He dropped the leash in his mad rush to chase after her. She ran down the other side of the road and into some bushes which gave DH a chance to catch up to her because she of course had to stop and smell the bush. Just as DH got close, she darted back across the street with a very upset and frantic DH right behind her. When she got across the street she looked back and saw that DH was still right behind her so she dashed back across, just narrowly missing being hit by a car and ran back up the street through the bushes and then got sidetracked by a aromatic bush again. This time when DH got close she was still distracted by the bush and he dived into the bush after her and caught her. When she realized that something had hold of her, she bit into DH's thumb just as hard as she could.

DH managed to keep ahold of her and get her out of the bush even though she continued to hiss, growl, and snap at him. Once she was out of the bush and could see who had grabbed her she stopped snapping but continued to hiss and growl. DH hugged her close and she took this opportunity to sink her claws into his nose. After prying her claws out, he rushed her home and knocked frantically on the door because he was scared to loosen his grip enough to get his keys and unlock the door, which brings us back to the beginning of where I come in.

After getting DH's wounds cleaned up, we went back out and found the leash. When we got back home, Mischief had come out of hiding. I asked DH if he wanted to punish her and he replied that he was just so relieved to have her home and safe that he couldn't think of a punishment. I was not so nice. After looking her over really well and making sure that she wasn't bleeding and that all limbs were fine and unharmed by DH jumping on her in the bush, I clipped her claws and took her into the bathroom and closed the door. I then started the water running in the tub. Mishief realized at this point that she was getting a bath and started to cry and howl as if she was under the most horrible torture ever devised. DH came back to see what was going on. Upon entering the bathroom, he realized what I was doing and asked if it was really necessary to give her a bath right then. I told him that she was filthy and she needed to be cleaned up and the bath had an added bonus of punishing her because she hates to be given a bath.

He then sat down on the floor and she climbed into his lap and did her best "I'm a good girl and I love you so much, please don't let mommy put me in the water" routine. DH asked if we could do it the next day instead. I replied with a firm no and picked her up to put her in the water. She must of realized just how upset I was because she didn't fight anywhere near as much as she usually does. I was actually able to give her a bath by myself when it usually takes one of us to hold her in the water and one of us to scrub. She got a nice long 20 minute bath. After I let her out of the water, she crawled back into DH's lap and did her best "I'm really sorry and I look so pitiful, please don't let her get out the hair dryer" routine. DH bought this one so instead of the hair dryer, he toweled her off for about 30 minutes and petted her for a while longer and then let her out of the bathroom to go bathe herself the rest of the way dry.

Needless to say, we will be buying a tighter harness when we decide to start taking her out again and it will be a long time before she goes on another walk.

We finally got to bed around 1am this morning and I am doing my best to stay awake and alert at work today. To Mischief's credit, she does apparently realize when to stop pushing because she didn't bother either one of us all night long and after she realized we were awake this morning, she got up on the bed and loved on us which as you know is not normal Mischief behavior. I guess she was asking if she was forgiven or not. The boys on the other hand were steering clear of us last night and this morning in the hopes of avoiding a bath for themselves.

DH's nose has two claw marks in it but they aren't immediately noticable. His thumb however looks the worse for wear. He has 2 very deep puncture marks and the whole top half of his thumb is black and blue. He is thankfully still on antibiotics from having bronchitis so hopefully they will stave off any infection. He went to work this morning with an aching thumb and the left over crispix treats from the GTG. As for me, I'm really glad that I didn't know she had gotten free until after she had been caught cause my heart couldn't have handled that again.