For those of you who are unfamiliar with the workings of an invisible fence, I’ll try and explain it.
I should warn you that my knowledge of all things scientific is primitive and my primitive explanation could be wrong.
A wire is buried several inches in the ground which looped around both properties at their rear and side perimeters and then across a portion of the front yard.
A unit with a transmitter mounted in Kevin’s garage sent electricity to make the wire hot and also, depending on the strength of the signal, caused the dog collar to beep at a certain distance from the fence and delivered a shock to the collar if the wire was crossed.
The distance between when the beeping started and the wire could be increased or decreased by raising or lowering the frequency.
The first time we turned the fence on, the frequency was so high the dogs wouldn’t leave the house.
Buster and Kevin’s dog, Casey, a small female chocolate lab looked forlornly at each other across the driveway from kitchen doors that faced each other.
Once we got the frequency lowered to an appropriate level, we had to walk the dogs around the yard so that they would get familiar with the beeping.
There were a few draw backs to the invisible fence.
If the power went out the fence was useless. This happened a couple of times allowing Buster to wander freely throughout the neighborhood.
Another drawback was the battery in the collar getting low.
I could usually tell that was occurring when Buster would venture further and further down the driveway and ever closer to the line in the driveway under which the wire was buried.
The sales representative that sold us the fence advised us that we could tell if the collar or the fence was in operation by walking down the driveway holding the collar and listening for the beep.
He neglected to tell me that you shouldn’t hold it with your fingers on the prongs that delivered the electric shock.
I learned that lesson the hard way.
The third and most complicated was a break in the wire.
On one occasion an adjacent property owner took it upon himself to clear weeds and brush along the rear property line.
He dutifully dug up the wire, thinking it was a root, he cut it.
I didn’t have much of a challenge finding that break and was able to shut the fence down while I spliced it back together with heavy duty electrical tape.
The challenge in finding other breaks came when the wire was cut while mowing the grass or doing yard work.
On the occasions when that occurred, it was necessary to get down on hands and knees and follow the wire around the property until the break appeared. It was like looking for the proverbial needle in the hay stack.
For whatever reason, we were always able to locate the break and splice it back together.
As Otto Von Bismarck once observed, “God smiles on fools, drunkards and the United States.”
While the fence kept the dogs in most of the time, it didn’t keep anything out.
Buster and Casey would lay in the front yard and watch the world go by.
Another neighbor’s cat, Olive, learned that she could inflict extreme emotional distress on both dogs by running into the yard and then scampering outside the fence as both dogs charged at her full speed while the collars beeped.
That led to a discussion with my daughter Kate, who asked what she could get Buster for Christmas.
“Well,” I said after a minute, “I’d bet he’d like his very own cat.”
“You’re awful Dad,” was the only reply.
In due time, history would repeat itself.
More to come next week.