Escape from Grey Gardens

Weird bad karma around here lately: I didn't get a grant I didn't think I would get, but you never know how much you want something until it is denied. The difference was all my other grants have been to serve students and programs and facilities and research support (money for other people or stuff) but this one was to buy me some time to do a longer project--just me. Then the car stalled, just flat out stalled for no apparent reason--Gary was driving, and we were just going down the street. So now I suppose it will need some sort of thorough going-over. Then what I am starting to think of "Jindhal-nomics" began to make itself felt at work yesterday. If our governor does what I suspect he might, I get to say I told you so to a lot of people in the next several years, but that's about all the enjoyment I'll get out of it. His approval numbers are over 75%--this is what NPR said this morning at the very moment my radio alarm went off, so I woke up hearing just that sentence--
But I won't talk about work here. Argh. Stop it. Escape!

But see that's just what happened. When I got home Gary had been out in the yard trying to coax Hattie in for 2 hours. She had slipped her collar or something and just absolutely would not come. She had escaped, and some whim or mood made her part stubborn, part scared (I think). So I went to work on it. We tried umpteen times getting the other dogs to herd her in--Beckett gave it his all, and was nearly successful in herding her, but she slipped away. We tried treats. I tried to trick her--mistake, it made her more skittish. I pleaded, I spoke low and sweet, but she'd get within 10 feet and just sit down, and if I moved she'd run away. I almost had her, but then a car pulled up the drive, and she's terrified of cars so she bolted and ran away, this time going into the wooded overgrown strip that borders the cane field next door. I ran down the driveway and put my hand out to stop the car, which turned out to be our neighbor who could tell I was pretty pissed off and here she had only been bringing us some strawberries. I knew she wouldn't come while the neighbor was here--the neighbor is lovely but Hattie distrusts anyone but Gary and me. The neighbor stayed inside talking with Gary for 20 minutes or so, during which time I got more treats (and a beer for me), got Hattie close enough to get her interested in them and sat down in the driveway with a trail of treats leading to me. She's always less intimidated by sitting people. She got halfway to me on the treat trail and stopped, retreated. So I just lay down and stuck more treats on my leg and stomach. The driveway was pretty nasty and the mosquitoes were biting me and I still had my work clothes on, and somewhere in the last hour of trying I had gotten poison ivy on my left hand which itched like mad, but I didn't care, I just wanted her to come back. Of course just as she was about to come close out comes the neighbor and zoom, off goes Hattie. It was getting dark.

So we left the door open and I made a big show of feeding the other dogs and noticed she had gotten partway up on the porch. I made her a dish of food and went to the door and rattled it, but she ran away. So I brought it back in and sent Scout and Beckett out for one more attempt. And just like that she followed them in.

Whereupon she became her sweet affectionate self, following me around and wanting petting, eating her dinner with no fuss, and then falling into a deep, sweet puppy sleep while I picked burrs out of her ears and feet.

I don't know, she's a strange one. It will probably be years before she trusts us utterly, the way the boys do. I think part of her wanted to come, but some instinct that comes from whatever happened to her before she came here was directly opposed, and telling her to run, be wary, don't trust. You can't fix that overnight, and even the few months she's been with us is too short a time. Soon we will go to obedience school, but I'm afraid being with all the other people and dogs will freak her out too much. I will need to call the teacher and see what he says before we go. And she'll need a halter collar for everyday, something she can't slip, as well as the correction collar.

In retrospect I don't think she'd have gone far. She knows Grey Gardens is her place for food and shelter and even affection. But I could not bear the thought of her panicking at something like the neighbor's car, taking off and winding up at the petrochemical plant down the road, where no doubt some oversized vehicle would terrify her so much she'd run into the highway.... or since the coyotes have been displaced from the riverbank (it is up over the bank!) they are closer in these days, and she's still small... It's probably a good thing I had no children or I'd still have them locked in their rooms. How does anyone do that?

And later: although it was horrible at the time, lying down in the driveway with a beer and puppy treats on one's stomach had to look interesting to the neighbor. I hope that she was amused, really, I do.

Reunion