OK, I am a bad pet parent. Thanks to me, Woody has two sores on his neck where the skin has rubbed off and become raw. He has some ointment and wound sealant (some kind of spray), and he'll be just fine. I'm feeling guilty, though. Here's the story...
About six weeks ago, we installed an electric "radio fence" for Woody. There's a wire buried around the edge of our yard that's connected to a power supply in the house. Woody has a special collar that gives him (small, humane) shocks if he goes too close to the fence border. On the collar are two small prongs that deliver the shocks.
So, a few weeks ago I glanced out the front window and nearly had a heart attack. There was Woody saying "hi" to some yellow dog (Lab or Golden Retriever, maybe). That's not what made my heart stop. It was the fact that they were IN THE ROAD. Now, we live on a fairly busy road. Both the local high school and middle school are a 1/2 mile down the road from the parsonage. The traffic on the road is the main reason we installed the fence in the first place. We don't want our dog to be hit by a car and killed!
I called Woody in, and he came. I checked, and the power to the fence was on. The collar still had plenty of battery juice. So I figured that the collar wasn't tight enough against Woody's neck; he hadn't felt the shock, and was able to go through the fence. I simply tightened the collar a little, and sent Woody on his merry way.
This Saturday, I had to go to Richmond (about a 3 1/2 hour drive), so I was gone all day (left at 5:45 am and came back at 7:00 p.m.). When I got home, James showed me Woody's neck. It was gross. The fur was matted in places, and we could see at least one prong-sized sore that was oozing. I guess I put Woody's collar on a little too tight, and it rubbed his neck raw.
I'm sorry, Woody! The moral to this story: if you get an underground fence for your pet, check their neck and collar every night!
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