Nibbler’s Pet Enclosure

This week has been a bit of an emotional roller coaster. It all started on Friday afternoon when we came home to discover Patch was missing from our yard. We spent the whole weekend looking for him, only to discover that he had been taken to the pound by someone passing by. We only found out about this when we saw his picture appear on the impound register on Monday afternoon.

Patch had allegedly jumped our 1.4m fence and attacked a dog. It was a woman driving by at the time, who stopped and collected him in her car, and then drove him to the pound. She didn’t bother to tell us or even leave a note. She returned a few hours after and just threw his coat over the fence.

When we got Patch home again on Wednesday night, we were told we had to lock him in our greenhouse, and could only allow him out when we were in the back yard with him. That night we purchased a pet enclosure for him and Nibbler and started building it.

The next afternoon, when I got home after work, I continued to finish building their enclosure. I let Patch out to exercise around the yard while I was building his enclosure. After about 5 minutes, a woman walking a small dog passed our yard. Patch immediately ran for the fence and to my surprise was able to clear it completely. I quickly ran after him and had to tackle him to the ground, to stop him from attacking this lady’s dog.

I brought him back into our yard and he then turned and attacked Nibbler. I had to heavily kick Patch to get him to stop, as nothing I was yelling was making any difference.

I am not sure what had changed in Patch. Perhaps the move to a new place was too overwhelming for him. However, after the incidents throughout the week, both Belinda and I could not risk having him around our family anymore.

Sadly, our only option was to surrender him to the council as they had categorised him as a dangerous dog. So the next day I drove Patch down to the council myself. It was a hard decision to make.

Over the weekend, Ryan and Emma helped me finish off the enclosure for Nibbler. Both Nibbler, and the kids, seem to be enjoying his new home.