I love letting Espy and Nipsy out into the sealed backyard, but Espy
is becoming a superb escape artist. Right now I'm watching them on the
spy cam but Espy got out two days ago and managed to get three yards
down before I caught up with him. He found a weakness in the plastic
mesh and managed to squeeze through. Luckily there is a retaining wall
that runs through all the yards and I just walked down it and scooped
him up. He had just walked down it to travel through the yards.

Then, yesterday, he was climbing an evergreen that is taller than the
fence and could have climbed over the top. Very smart boy this one.

I was just back there in a chair while Espy went along an entire side
of the yard poking at the mesh in various places and climbing up it to
see what would happen. I'm watching him look for ways to get out. He
has no idea that what he is doing is bad.

So I put something in the tree to stop him from climbing up the
middle; one of those squirrel stopper kinds of things. But I seem to
have two choices, not letting them out at all, which I would hate to
do. They love it so much. Or, perhaps, putting some sort of tracking
collar on Espy.

I was looking at the ones that folks use for hunting dogs. There are
beeper types that you can trigger the beeper from far off and you can
hear it for hundreds of yards (around $150) . Or there are the radio
tracking kinds that are good for miles but cost around $500.

Am I nuts to think of putting one of these on Espy when I let him out?
He can't get far away before I check on him, and something like this
would make it easy to keep track of him.

Sometimes I can't find him and go crazy before discovering him under a
bush. This way I can press a button and follow the noise.

I'm nuts, right?