Porch Lookout

As some of you know, I live on the second floor of a 2-story building. I have two very, very large porches. Here’s what I call the “front” porch:

This porch has three sets of sliding doors. I put a doggy door in the side set of doors so that Brindy could go in and out as she pleased. Which she did: many, many, many times a day. Here she is stationed in her lookout:

The problems with this solution were twofold: first, the doggy door was ugly. It just didn’t fit in with the view or decor. Second, the door faces west and the wind, which is usually from the west, blew the door open constantly, letting in hot or cold air and dust.

Since I still wanted Brindy to be able to go out, I installed a doggy door on one of the back porch doors. The back porch is even larger than the front:

One big difference between the two porches is that while the front porch has balusters that Brindy can poke her nose between, the back porch walls are solid; she has no way of seeing out.

I asked my cousin, Wayne, if he could make me a ramp and table that I could set a kennel on so that Brindy could see over the walls. Meantime, I started getting Brindy used to being left alone in the house, rather than putting her in her kennel whenever I left.

All was going well; I was able to leave her for longer and longer times without her getting into anything she shouldn’t.

(Here, for example, is what happened one of the first times she was left alone in this house a few years ago)

Wayne made arrangements to deliver the table and ramp on Tuesday, June 27th. Three days before, I took mom to church and out to eat, leaving Brindy in the house. I came home about 2:30pm and walked into the building’s lobby from my garage. I happened to glance out the lobby doors and was astonished to see Brindy on the outside, looking in!

Of course, I immediately went out to get her and to try to figure out how she had gotten out there. My next-door neighbors were out and had just noticed Brindy wandering back and forth between my garage and the lobby door.

What I found on my back porch when I went upstairs to investigate, was a chair, with pawprints all over it, pushed up against the wall. The wall around the porch is very wide, at least 18″, and I’m guessing Brindy felt comfortable enough to jump from the chair to the top of the wall. From there, she apparently made her way to the 1st floor roof.

Here are pictures of my patio walls, the roof below them, and the smashed bush that I can only assume Brindy landed in when she jumped. She’s lucky she didn’t impale herself!

All patio chairs are now well away from the walls and the new kennel setup is in place. It took Brindy about two days to get the hang of going up the ramp to the kennel, but now she runs into it as soon as I leave the house. Is this a spoiled dog or what?!