Gibby Has His Doggy Door

My very kind neighbor installed Gibby's doggy door, so I am no longer heating the great out doors with my new furnace. I bought the largest door available at Tractor Supply, the one that shows a dalmatian on the package. We wondered if maybe it was too small for Gibby the Giant, but no worries there - Gibby gets into the house just as fast as he did before - just as fast and not quite as noisy.

Gibby has been collecting - he finds things inside and brings them outside. I first noticed his collectability when I saw the last roll of toilet paper out in the dog pen. The next day, a bright spot of red turned into a silk scarf I had brought from China. It was still in the original plastic bag without a single mark on it. Then I found a Mexican doll. One black work boot. A water bottle. A plastic box. A skein of yarn. A book. I've almost started to look forward to seeing what will be next.

Gibby also has a huge collection of sticks. The wind has been generous, lots of sticks down and most of them right in the yard behind the house. Only a couple sticks have fallen into Gibby's pen and only a few really large logs have fallen - luckily not on the house, although one is leaning against the house. Gibby has a couple of sticks that are so big, both long and thick, that I have to run fast when he comes toward me with one in his mouth - I really don't want to have one of those sticks run into me.

Gibby almost got away today. I had just let him into the yard when I realized he was running too far away. He had gone behind the trailer, on the far side of where the cattle dogs were tied. I knew I had clipped the cable to his collar. I have been making him sit until I have it clipped and tell him it's okay to go. Then I saw the cable flying out behind him - for a short distance, then nothing. Somehow he had snapped the cable. I'll have to check at the Tractor Store, I'm pretty sure I remember that the cable was supposed to hold 2500 pounds - I can't imagine that Gibby could have applied more pressure than that just by running full tilt to the end of the cable. The really nice thing was that he didn't go after the cats and he came right to me when I called. Hanging onto him while I fastened another cable clip to his collar wasn't easy and it was wasted effort - I had used the other end of the broken cable and off he was, running again. I finally got the second cable he had wrapped around some trees and some sticks untangled and clipped onto him - and it was waaaay too short. I moved it from the dog pen fence over to the little grove of scrub trees that Gibby likes to run around and that let him run to most of his normal places. I'll have to buy him a new cable tomorrow.