Worst nightmare/my wake up heart attack

[Andrew]

I left the door to my 2nd story porch open last night to get some air flow in the house. Callie & Lola woke up this morning, excited about something outside. It really irritated me because they kept waking me up. After a while, Lola returned to bed & whimpered a couple of times & never settled down again. Callie didn't come back to bed so I assumed she was watching squirrels from the porch.
I woke up at 10:30 & Callie was gone. I don't keep collars on them in the house, and she had either jumped or fallen off the porch, either onto soft muddy grass or the driveway so there was the possibility of injury. Paniced, I leashed Lola & headed outside. First I looked around the sides of the house to make sure she wasn't laying there injured or dead.
Then I started walking up the street. My next door neighbor was out watering his lawn & had not seen her. 2 neighbors sitting on their front porch 2 doors down said she was right down the street & had been out chasing squirrels for about an hour!!!!
I started in the direction they pointed & called her name a few times. I was trying to call work & let them know I'd be late, and trying to decide if I should get in my car or keep walking. Within about 5 minutes, the neighbors on their porch said "Oh there she is!!" I turned around & she was running back towards my house, away from me. She went straight to the guy watering his lawn & he bent down & scooped her up.
She doesn't have a scratch on her, just damp feet from running through wet grass. It sounds like she stayed mostly on the sidewalk & close to the house THANK GOD!
This is the 2nd basenji I've had fall or jump off of a 2nd story porch & carouse around the neighborhood on their own. Lesson learned. And just so everybody on here is clear, basenjis can and will survive a 2nd story jump/fall in order to go chase something good.

[Maya]

Wow, she is one very lucky girl! Im glad you got her home safely, you must have been worried sick.

Maybe, to add to their list of cat-like traits, basenjis also have 9 lives!

[sharronhurlbut]

Glad this all ended well.

[Kipawa]

Wow, my stomach was lurching as I read your story. I'm so happy that everything worked out.

I know there are strong opinions for dogs wearing collars in the house, or not. Is Callie microchipped? IMO, there has to be some way to identify your dog, should they get loose - and it sounds like your Callie enjoys getting loose, and this might not be the last time she does it.

Could you build something around the railing (say wire fencing angled upwards towards the balcony) to deter this behaviour?

[nobarkus]

Glad you got her back safe. It's a good idea to keep the collars on in case of something like this or any emergency like a fire where you all had to get out fast. Can't you put chicken wire around the perimeter of the porch so that can't happen?

[lisastewart]

So glad nothing really bad happened. I know you will be glad to get into your house soon. I had two walk off 2nd floor decks when we lived in NY. I put lattice all around it Ftwr the first incident, in fact the young man who did the work for me was one of my puppy buyers and he did construction work for mento pay for the puppy. The reason I have Tempest is because she jumped off her breeders second floor deck twice and he told me that I said we will be there tomorrow to get her

[Quercus]

OMG Carrie! That is terrifying! I am so glad she is okay!

[thunderbird8588]

I'm so pleased Lola is safe, what a terrible shock for you.
I must say that we have started removing the dogs collars in the house as they play fight a lot and both have had times were they have got their jaws stuck in each others collars. They are both microchipped.

[Patty]

Thank goodness she's safe and well. In my experience If Basenjis jump from a height they seldom hurt themselves. It would be a good idea to put some sort of a guard round if you are ab

She is a very good girl to decide to come home like that.

[Basenjimamma]

oh no..how horrifying…so happy she is safe at home again.

[Nemo]

What a nightmare! I'm so glad everything turned out OK.

[DebraDownSouth]

Unfortunately, the collar could have caught on something in the race through the squirrel hunt, so not one to say it would be helpful. That said, I do know people who put the collars on AT NIGHT ONLY in case of a fire and when they don't worry about play causing accidents. But obviously the safest thing is to secure the railing to higher or stop them going on it unsupervised. So glad your dog is okay!

[curlytails]

Glad she's back from her "adventure" unhurt! That probably would've taken a few years off of my life.

[Andrew]

It definitely felt like I aged 10 years in a few minutes this am. I must have looked like a complete crazy person. My neighbors don't know me because I moved up here mid-winter, and only recently has it warmed up enough for chance encounters with neighbors outside. I went running outside at 10:30 am with 2 leashes, 1 dog, a sample bag of cat food, wearing Christmas themed pj pants, a bright yellow Georgia Tech hoodie sweatshirt, no glasses so i can't see, randomly shouting "HAVE YOU SEEN A LITTLE DOG RUNNING AROUND!" at my neighbors.
Both of my girls are microchipped. I know there is a lot of debate about collars. I fear, especially with the martingale style, that mine will strangle themselves if they get caught on something when I'm not around. In this case, I'm glad Callie didn't have a collar on because the rungs on the porch are so close together, she may have caught the collar without realizing it & jumped & hung herself. I do worry that they will get out & somebody will find them but not know to check for a microchip, but even dogs with collars can lose them while running around loose. So I don't think there is a right or wrong answer for when to collar them. Mine don't usually dart out of doors, so I don't worry about it too often.
As for the porch; that will not be accessible to them if I can not supervise them from now on. Fortunately I will only be here for a couple more weeks, so I won't worry about adding chicken wire or anything. I'm already saving up for a basenji proof fence for the new house though. Callie is quite the escape artist when she has motivation (clearly!)