What the Heck....?

Is that a foot?!

After she burst free

Zala

What happened this morning can be likened to the story of Zulu jumping down the laundry chute to see me in the basement where I was visiting Tuloon and her puppies last summer. This is a "How the heck did that happen?!" event. This time, the story is about Zulu's granddaughter, Zala.

I was out in the yard rounding up the dogs so that I could head out to puppy class with Wimzi. I called for Zala, who typically comes instantly. She didn't come. I gazed on the other side of the fence to see if she had, by chance, slipped under after a rabbit and would any minute, come bolting toward me. No Zala. I began to walk closer to the house and as I went to take my first step on the deck, I heard panting, looked down and saw a foot and a nose barely visible from a hole about 4 inches deep under the deck! How the heck did that happen?! How in the world did she get under the deck in a 4 inch gap? I made sure she wasn't in distress and then I just had to run quickly inside to grab my camera. This had to be documented or else no one would believe it!

Well, there was no way she was going to be able to get out by herself. Not quickly anyway. She was stuck and stuck good! And I wasn't going to be able to pull her out safely. And there was no other way out from under the deck. I grabbed a shovel and started digging. All along, thinking,"You little #&*%!". This reminded me of the time an old retired sled dog named Bingo went into a long narrow den that one of the females had dug into the side of a hill in the back yard. He brought a bone in, tried to turn around and come back out and got stuck while folded in half. Poor boy! Thankfully, I found him and dug him out quickly. Poor thing walked as if still folded in half for a few minutes before he got his muscles to work properly again. It was a funny yet sad sight. Goofy dogs.

As I continued to shovel Miss Zala out from under the deck, she gained a little bit of space for movement and began to use her front legs to help dig which made my job even more difficult as I tried to avoid her legs while using the shovel. There was now about a 6 inch gap and Zala began to slowly emerge from under the deck before I could dig deeper. It looked like the deck was giving birth to a 45lb sled dog as she wiggled, squirmed, flattened her hips down and finally burst free. Oh, for crying out loud, Zala. I can see I am going to have to watch her closely once she begins the nesting period of her pregnancy. Who knows where she might end up.

She shook her muddy self off and continued about her tour of the back yard as if nothing had happened. And now, I was running late for class. Geez.

When telling our trainer at class this story, she grinned and said that I've got a problem solver on my hands. "What a great thing to have in your working dog line!," she added. It's interesting how things can look a lot different in a different frame. I was actually wondering what I had gotten myself into with this breeding! We're going to have curious puppies stuck in holes all over the back yard. Oh well, they'll be darn good sled dogs anyway.