Stuck!

Puppies = Trouble?

Dog Blog Post #138: Friday, around lunch time, I got a call from hubby at home: "Come home right now. Don't do anything else. Get in the car and come home."

And that was it.

Crap

A thousand thoughts ran through my head as I bolted for the car and made it home in record time. When I opened the front the door, the first thing I noticed was that the lovely new baby gate (the one I had raved about before Henry arrived) was not there.

This is a metal baby gate, with an actual gate in it, held in place by... by... I have no idea how it's held in place - tension I suppose. All I know is that it didn't require making holes in the walls or affixing anything permanently to the walls or floors, and we loved it.

And it was gone.

The other things I noticed were Zachary was crunching a chewie, and hubby sitting on the floor with Henry seated calmly in front of him...

... with rather sizable portion of the baby gate stuck around his neck.

12" ruler shown for scale

It seems that Zachary had dropped his chewie on his side of the gate, and Henry had managed to stick his head through the side panel to try to reach the chewie, but couldn't get his head back out.

And I thought that sort of thing only happened on YouTube.

Despite our gentle tugging, turning, twisting, and a quickly aborted effort of cutting the panel, it was clear that our little boy wasn't going to become free so easily.

Down to the vet we went, with me driving and hubby holding puppy in one hand and the end of the gate panel in the other.

The vets and techs were wonderful, and to see Henry wagging his tail you would think not a thing was wrong.

In the end, five sets of hands, a generous dose of lubricant, and a very calm vet who teased first one ear then the other back through the panel and finally the rest of Henry's head, saved the day.

Freedom!

Amazingly enough, despite some plaintive squeals near the end, Henry seemed none the worse for wear and gave the everyone plenty of thank you kisses.

I can't thank the staff enough for freeing my baby!

Once home again, the lovely gate was replaced by an ex-pen while we consider our options, ultimately returning to the tried and true wood and mesh variety.

At least for now.

The vet said in a few weeks Henry's head will be too large to fit through the panel and we can put the gate back up again.

Hmmm....

We'll have to see about that!

Didn't you learn your lesson?