The Games a Gator Plays

The Gator on the Run.

Here I have found some pictures of Molly-Gator from March, wherein she had escaped the yard. Molly-Gator is a professional escape artist, and very good at her job. Just when we think we finally have the perimeter secure, she makes another break for it. The most exasperating thing about these escapes is that she thinks capture is a game. She will not come to me or j^C if her life depended on it, but she'll run the neighborhood making friends with anyone who happens to be standing in their yard. I have found her more than once a few streets over, on her back, having her belly rubbed by some random by-stander. 

She mocks me.

Unless she is caught by someone while she is on the loose, the only way to catch The Gator is to start driving around the neighborhood. She likes to give chase, so I drive up and down the streets at a fairly fast speed, so that she is about 20 feet behind the car. Any slower and she likes to catch up with me and then dart out in front of the vehicle. Not good. I am terrified that I am going to hit her someday.

Come on Sprout! Chase me!

This whole process is just a game to her. I imagine she feels that she doesn't get enough exercise or   something. I cannot believe that she would make such an assertion though. We have a large back yard with lots of toys. When we try to play with her, she can't be bothered. I also take her to the huge local dog park sometimes, where she finds a shady spot and languishes. She might say her evading capture techniques have to do with her need to run and play, but I think it's just because she knows it drives us all bananas. She has a good sense of humor, that dog, and I know she thinks it's funny.