Gabe's Day Out
 

So, yesterday, Gable proved his intelligence, and his ability to be a pain in my keister. He has learned how to open his crate.

At some point yesterday, he perfected this skill, and when I arrived home from work, he happily greeted me at the door.

The living room looked like a tornado had gone through it. He had torn open a pillow and scattered the stuffing everywhere.

He tore open a sack of potatoes and eaten the better part of three of them.

He opened the sewing box, pulled out the container I keep the pins in and ate the container, leaving only the lid and the pins scattered freely around the sewing box.

He table surfed and found a hollow, foil-wrapped chocolate champagne bottle, tore it open, and ate it.

He turned over my fishbowl, dumping Jarah the betta onto the table.

He found my EMT hip kit and must have shaken all the tools out of it.

He ate a pencil. I found only the point and the eraser.

He also chewed the top off of the fish food and ate all of it.

When I got home, I managed to quickly grab some water and dump Jarah into it. I don't know how long he was out of water, but he seems to have survived his ordeal unscathed.

The other scary thing was that I couldn't find Jacky, the inside cat. I looked everywhere, but couldn't find her. She normally runs out to meet me, and I was terrified Gabe had accidentally hurt her (he plays a little too rough sometimes).

Then, I heard a mewing from the hall closet. She was locked in the closet. The only thing I can think is that when Gabe escaped and opened the hall door (which she cannot open), one of them opened the closet door, and when she went inside, Gabe pushed it closed.

I locked him in his crate again to see if it was a fluke, but, no...minutes later he had opened the door again.

I'm stunned at all the damage, because he's exhuberant and energetic when I'm home, but never so destructive!

Looks like we'll be needing a new crate...

Wow, he was a busy boy. I would be terrrified thinking of things that he may have swallowed, I am a worry wort that way. Hope that you find a way to keep him secure so that he himself and your home will be safe.

I bet he told you that the cat did it and that is why he locked it in the closet. ;)

I am terrified. I'm keeping a close watch on him. He had a rather unpleasant night last night after all the junk he ate, but maybe that will teach him a lesson.

I need to get a new crate, I suppose, but in the meantime, I've secured the door with nylon cord, and in our dry run, he tried to open the door, but couldn't. He unlatched it, but couldn't get it open. He was very upset and with his newfound escape capabilities, seems to have un-crate-trained himself. He whined and cried when he couldn't get out.

And yep, I'm sure he'd love to convince me the cat did it. He HAD to break out to stop her!

That boy is gonna be a problem I wouldn't go away and leave him with only nylon cords between him and disaster. I would chain the door closed--top, bottom and middle. Nylon is easily chewed.

The tie is on a projection from the door. It doesn't seem like he can reach it. I did the dry run this morning to make sure. And it's just a temporary measure...until I can institute a more permanent solution.

It wouldn't be so bad, I suppose, if he had cleaned the kitchen and did the laundry while he was out re-decorating your home.

Clever boy.

Right? Maybe cleaned the litterbox... On second thought, no....I'd settle for the kitchen and laundry. I don't want to see what he'd do with the litterbox.

I'm sorry, I had to laugh! It sounded so comical, although i'm sure it was anything but :rolleyes:
Poor betta and kittie, I'm glad they were both ok. Is Gabe in a wire crate? What if you tried carabiners in a couple of places on the crate?
I'm glad that everything turned out ok, it sounds like Gabe is not going to have freedom anytime soon :wild:

See, it's a little funny NOW. It wasn't yesterday. Not at all.

And no, he's in the heavy plastic variety.

Also, I hope he's not gonna be free any time soon...I'm starting to suspect he's smarter than I am.

Nemo figured out how to open his crate the second day after I got him home. I now also use 2 clip type clasps in addition to the latches and he can't get that open :) despite trying to.

He has since then figured out how to open the doors, we have the lever type handles instead of round knobs. The only doors he can't open are the few that open as you pull them, anything you push to open is fair game to him. so he can't let himself out, but does let himself in when he is outside and ready to come in.

Good thing the pantry door pulls open or else he would live in there :). He knows where the treats are kept.