Cletus

Our neighbors have two dogs, Cletus and Remy.  Cletus is a brown, tall and lanky hound dog that is around four years old.  He was an adorable puppy tripping over his long floppy ears, looking up at you with that brown eyed sad face.  He would let me pet him when he was a puppy, but as he grew, he wouldn't let me anymore.  He would just jump up on the fence, throw his head back and give me that mornful sounding howl. When I would walk to the fence and try to pet him, he ran to the center of the yard but kept howling at me. I was disappointed because he was such a loving little puppy.

Remy came into their family about two years ago.  Cletus took to this pudgy white lab and they played nonstop. Now whenever we're out in the yard, or walking to the trash cans, they both bark their heads off at us, which at first terrified Christian.  But we played alot in the yard over the summer, and even though the dogs didn't get used to us and kept barking, Christian became more at ease, though wouldn't get close to the fence.  I was continually telling him that the fence it too high for them to jump over, he didn't have to worry, they would never get into our yard, and that I would never let them get him.  As the days went on, Christian was more and more at ease and has even said he wants to pet them, but when he gets near, changes his mind.

Fast forward to this past Sunday night. We got home from my parent's house around 6:00 pm and it was starting to get dark. I went out on the back porch to get something, looked out the porch windows out of habit and did a double take.  Was that Cletus IN my fenced in yard????  Now I sometimes say what I am thinking out loud, and I said, "Cletus, are you IN my yard?" like he was going to answer me. At the exact same second, Christian was at my side saying,  "see him, see him" and Cletus had bounding up the back steps to press his nose against the door window.  It scared the living hell out of Christian, seriously.  He let out a scream, clutched my leg pinching my skin, and was trying to pull me inside the house.  I felt SO bad for him!

We went inside, closed the door and he bolted into the dining room.  I picked him to hold him and he was shaking like a leaf.  I told him everything was ok, Cletus couldn't get into the house.  Now I'm sure if Christian could take more clear, he would say, "yeah right Mom, and you said he could never get into the yard either!"  After a few minutes he calmed down and started saying, "Cletus get out, MY yard!" So I joined in, making it a game, to keep him calm.  I wasn't about to go out there and try to manuever this big dog back into his own yard when I wasn't sure he wouldn't knock me down or even try to bite me. I decided to just leave him there, hope he didn't poop in the yard, and wait for the neighbors to get home.

I started cooking supper but Christian wouldn't even come into the kitchen, because you have to go through the kitchen to get to the back porch and then in the back yard.  After much cajoling, he came into the kitchen and we ate supper, but he didn't take his eyes off the kitchen window.  I guessed that Cletus had managed to jump up on a trash can they had by the fence and hoist himself over because the trash can was tipped over with everything spilled out.  After about an hour, I heard the neighbors pull up, went outside to tell them what happened and they were so apologetic.  They went into their back yard and Christian and I went back into the house to the back porch to watch the activity. They asked me to unlock the side gate so they could just walk him to the front of the house and inside.  I got the keys and because Cletus was right at the gate waiting to get out, I told them they had to hold him because I didn't want to get knocked down.

I decided because Christian was so anxious, that keeping him in my arms to unlock the gate was definitely not going to work.  I put him down on the back porch, told him to stay there and closed the door.  If Cletus got spooked, I didn't want him to bolt up the stairs into the porch with Christian, so the closed door would keep him blocked out.  Christian went into hysterics, literally!  I have never heard him scream so loud in such fear, it chilled my heart.  I ran to the gate, unlocked it as fast as I could, which wasn't all that fast because now it was dark and seeing the padlock wasn't easy.  The neighbors felt so incredibly bad, especially when Christian starting screaming, they kept apologizing over and over.  I got back inside and we spent the rest of the evening in the living room, the farthest room in the house from the back porch.

So now every night when we get home, Christian wants to drive down the alley to look in the back yard to make sure Cletus isn't there.  Just my luck, we had made good progress over the weekend with my sister's dog, Christian was petting and playing with her. Now I'm thinking this event may regress him a little.  I'm going to keep taking him into the back yard so he isn't afraid, like that whole, 'if you fall off a horse you have to get right back on,' concept.  Oh, I didn't find any poop either....YAY!
~Amy