How I Saved My Dog from a Shed

I may have saved Clara’s life when I finally fenced off a shed in my backyard.

It’s one of those modular sheds, and set up on concrete blocks. Lots of people around here have them, and plenty of wild critters learn to hide or nest in the crawl space. Even the wrens take their fledglings there as a way station after they first leave the nest.

Some dogs figure out how to crawl around under there.

With my gang, Zani started it. She made the area under the shed her playground. She not only tracked critters under there, but she had a couple little dug-out snoozing areas. If I couldn’t find Zani in the yard, I knew where to look: a 12-inch space under a shed with bare nails poking down through the floor. I made plans to block the shed off with garden fencing. I just had to figure out how to do that and still be able to open the door.

In the meantime, Clara watched Zani scooting around under the shed for a few days and decided that looked fun. But Zani was 19 pounds; Clara was 44. As her person, I told her she was Too Big, but she didn’t agree. When I wasn’t paying attention, she would sometimes dive under there, too.

I’m so glad I took this one video. As you watch, notice that I didn’t say anything as I was looking under the side of the shed where the dust was poofing out. I didn’t want her trying to come that way, because she couldn’t get out on that side. There was only one place where she could exit, and she had to fling her body sideways to do it.

You can hear the stress in my voice during the video. I was so worried that she’d get trapped or injured. And that was before the main terrifying event.