August 8th, 2019.

Buddy is a gorgeous boy, also very challenging. Animal control asked for our help because he was too smart to go into their trap. He had been running around near Lake Meridian for more than a month. I brought the big trap there, and he watched me set it up, which took about half an hour. He really likes the homeowner and will accept treats from her hand. Once the trap was ready to go, we put the food in the back, and he went in within a few minutes, and was trapped. He didn’t seem particularly alarmed or upset. I was in a hurry to go to another appointment, and I planned to come back a little bit later. As we were driving away, about three minutes after I had left, I got a call that he had escaped. He had climbed up the interior, and he tore a hole in the canopy covering the top. I didn’t know that was possible. It has never happened before.

Buddy came back around a little bit later, apparently not too upset about the incident. He still takes treats from the homeowners hand. He likes to go to the neighbors yard, where he jumps over their fence, and visits with two of their dogs. One of the dogs that he visits looks identical to him except about 25% larger. It seems pretty obvious that Buddy came from that yard and has been escaping. The owner of the other two dogs claims that Buddy is not his, probably because he doesn’t want to be blamed for any trouble that his dog gets into. We are still working on catching him. Once we do, the next challenge will be deciding what to do with him.