I didn't know this is what they meant when they said DOG DAYS OF SUMMER...

The liver (dark brown) colored dog is Brownie...we got him about 5 years ago from an old man who had just been diagnosed with prostate cancer and was having to go to Chicago for treatment several times a week, so he wanted someone to take care of him. He had only recently rescued Brownie from a very abusive environment.
When we got Brownie he was scared of everyone and everything...now it's mainly just thunderstorms that send him under the bed for hours at a time.
However, as he's gotten more comfortable he also has begun to...stretch his legs more. Meaning...he's all about jumping over the 4 foot fence, or going under the fence if he finds a weak spot, or darting out of the gate if the kids leave it open for two seconds.
A month ago, I had to pay $150.00 to get him out of the vets office because he had run and been picked up by animal control! The extra $50.00 was because his 3 years rabies shot was due (had expired the week before and I had an appointment for the NEXT DAY). So, they wouldn't release him to us unless we paid them to do it.
Yesterday, he scooted under the fence (apparently in a place where my husband had left a few too many inches of gap between the metal U's he had put down along the fence line to keep that from happening. He was again picked up by animal control...who remembered him...but still took him to their vet's office...which meant a $75.00 fee for picking him up and a $17.50 fee for boarding him...He wasn't even there an hour because we had called the city police and filed a report so as soon as animal control called it in, BEFORE they had gotten to the vet's office, they knew who the dog belonged to and the city police called us. I then had 15 minutes to get all the way to the town next to ours to pick him up or they would have closed and I'd have had to wait until today and paid an additional $17.50 for boarding.
This dog and I are gonna box soon!

Apparently these are the dog days of summer.