(Click here to jump down to the pictures first.)

Three times this week I came back from taking my second dog Sam (15 months old) to the park and there was Ash sitting waiting for me on the patio. Not in the run where I left her. On the patio.

First time I thought, "No problem. Someone must have opened the gate and let her up." - She's allowed there, under supervision of course. ...but then I realised she wasn't under supervision, the place was quiet and no-one else was around. No-one else was even home!

Oh crap!

So I spent the next half an hour going over every inch of the run looking for loose boards, loose wire mesh, faults in the lock on the gate, tunnels under the fence, small gaps, anything. By the end I was resorting to testing holes with a tennis ball to try to find something she could have slipped through.

Because of course she couldn't have climbed the fence.

In the end I put it down to the possiblity that I hadn't shut the gate properly, the only sensible explanation really.

But two more times after that it happened again and what was most amazing is that there is NO WAY she could have gotten through the main gate. I mean, that gate is Alcatraz from bottom to top, all vertical lines, all meshed, locked firmly, over 6 foot tall, and you can bet I hadn't left it unlocked this time. No way. And beyond the gate was MORE wire mesh I'd put in to connect the short path between the gate of the run and the gate of the pool patio fence. (Keeps me from losing too many dogs into the blackness when I let them out at night.) So even if she'd managed to find another way out of the run she would have had to fight her way over the second mesh fence, then find a way through the pool fence gate to get onto the patio. Because the patio is where she always waited for me. No, that scenario was not an option.

So after the third time I spent half an hour hiding around the corner waiting to see if she'd reveal her escape route, but damn her she kept the poker face and showed me nothing. I needed to se HOW she was escaping before I could fix it, but she wasn't in a compliant mood and refused to deal. So off I went to the park, and lo and behold there she was on the patio when I got back, stretched out in the sun, beaming pleasantly to see me again.

No doubt in my mind now, she had convinced me totally - some Sibes can levitate.

Then the breakthrough came this morning, when I happened to be out there at 6:25am, partly to tell them to stop fighting and return to their corners, and partly to thank them personally for getting me up so early with their noise yet again. And what should I see but Sam with his nose up Ash's backside, and Ash three feet off the ground, half in and half out of the run, poking rather awkwardly through the fence.

My first thought was to bellow at Sam to stop shoving Ash through the fence and get her out of his mouth (and how the hell had he managed to get her up so high anyway???) but then of course Sam moved away and Ash was still left dangling half way up the fence. He'd never touched her at all. Half in, half out she was, the only bits still inside the run were her hips and her tail. God, I thought, this isn't possible. I can't believe what I'm seeing. No time to grab the camera, I half laughed half panicked my way down the ramp, flew into the run and had to pull at her pretty hard to get her back through the fence. Still, she wasn't fazed in the least, the only thing I could say she was, was happy to see me.

Anyway I thought, the world isn't going to believe me about this, so this afternoon I just had to stage the event again, this time with camera at the ready. Thank you to Ash who complied wonderfully and in 3 minutes I had all the evidence in the world. I'll let the photos tell the rest of the story.

Needless to say I've spent an hour this afternoon securing the entire fence perimeter so my Houdini dog won't be able to repeat the stunt. I think she's had more than enough audiences really.

Anyway hope you enjoy seeing the evidence for yourself! And remember, those fences are over 6 foot tall. I can tell I'll be using the phrase "My dog flew over the fence" quite a bit more in the future. Grin.

- Andrew Peterson. 13th Feb 2003.

In position and ready to escape, Ash is standing on the bent-over top of the wire mesh surrounding the sandpit. How she got up there in the first place is a mystery because it's just under 3 feet off the ground (higher than standard table height) and not an easy place to balance.	From this position she still had to get her body through the palings, with nothing more to push against than the wire mesh on the wall next to her. She is also either fearless or insane because on the other side of the fence is a 6 foot drop down to the bottom of the retaining wall. Whoever said Sibes weren't determined?