In Focus

The kennel saga has been reignited.

On Wednesday night as the snow began to fall and the forecast said we were supposed to get a lot of it, I decided to block off the door to the kennel. I didn’t know how the chicken netting would hold up.

I woke up Thursday morning to a ton of snow. I threw on my boots and jacket and ventured outside for some photos and to shovel some snow. Then I went to see how the kennel looked.

From the kitchen window I saw the net was sagging under the snow’s weight. I went outside and saw it was sagging more than I expected.

I opened the narrow kennel door and walked inside. I didn’t even touch the bulge when the support beam broke. The snow that had accumulated in the net had sunk it to the ground, pulling the sides of the kennel inwards and pushing me against the fence. While I was shocked, I was not hurt. The door would not open more than a few inches due to the weight of the snow dragging it down.

I hollered for my mom who was talking to my neighbor with a snowblower. They didn’t hear me. I thought about crawling though the dog door, but the animals are faster than I am and would get out. About 10 minutes later I heard the front door shut. I hollered again as loud as I could and she came out. Then she had to grab the neighbor for extra muscle. They had to pull back on the fence enough to give me a few inches to get out of the kennel door. That was fun...not.

Once I got out we untied the ropes to the net and let it hit the ground so it wouldn’t break the fence. I went back in to clear the snow off the netting. We had to leave it that way as more snow was coming in and I would have to clear the netting off again before we could put it back on top of the kennel.

Believe it or not, Bigfoot and Yeti are the most upset with me right now. Yeti loves to hang out in the breezeway and chill while Bigfoot absolutely loves to play in the snow. They are banned from the kennel until we can get it fixed this weekend.

So, that was my fun start to the Minnesota snow day. Hopefully, everyone else fared better than I did.