Greyhound Statue

FACTS:

1. I have had Gemini for 3 years and up until 3 weeks ago, he has not got himself into any situations that he needed rescuing from.

2. I had surgery 3 weeks ago and have a weight restriction on lifting of 20 pounds.

3. Gemini weighs somewhere between 75 and 80 pounds.

SCENE: 5:00 am Tuesday morning. Typical morning, I roll out of bed, come downstairs and the dogs follow me. I light up a cigarette (yes, I'm an evil smoker, we all have our vices) and let the dogs out and step onto the patio.

Gemini immediately spies something moving, probably a little lizard, and goes after it. Next thing I know, he is stuck between the gas meter and the house.

Now, for all of you that have greyhounds, you know that when they get spooked, they turn into statues.

I tried to persuade him to go backwards, he wasn't having it. He couldn't figure out how to navigate the turn going backwards.

At this point I noticed the post the meter is one is a bit sharp and the top is rusted. Have to change the strategy.

So, I try again to get Gemini to go backwards and he barks and tries to nip. I muzzle him and spy the camera in the house.

While trying to think about what to do, I snap the above picture. I know, kinda mean, but he wasn't going anywhere and I had to think.

I can't lift the dog, I am willing to risk a hernia, but the gas pipe is above him so even if I could lift him, I couldn't get him out because of the pipe.

I can't squeeze him through without busting his skin open against the rusted post, which means an immediate trip to the vet, so that is not a good option.

I was debating about calling someone. But at 5 o'clock in the morning, by the time they woke up, was no longer mad at me for waking them up, and got over to my house, the situation would probably be resolved so they would just be mad again so that wasn't a good idea. (You can thank me now Jodi.)

So, I found a stool, lifted a back leg onto the stool with his full force resisting me, and he took it from there. Jumped up enough to clear the post. He did not injure himself, thank goodness!!!

I think he stayed stuck for about 5 solid minutes while I worked through how to figure all this out, poor dog. Amazingly, I managed to stay calm to entire time.

And the whole time, Heater just wanted to play.