Friday was the straw that broke the camel's back. My patience with my husband's promise to repair our back yard FENCES to prevent our dog from escaping had run out. Duke took off before 6:00 am for an early morning jaunt over the river and through the woods to wherever he ended up. Over the past month, he's been apprehended three times by Animal Control, taken in by a wonderful stranger and escaped multiple times to steal enough neighborhood dog toys to tote a Grand Larceny charge.

He's resisted all efforts at behavior modification, mocks his Invisible Fence and removed the large wooden gate's ability to properly latch. Throughout each these tense episodes, I'd morphed from suggesting to nagging that Perry have the fence repaired. My husband assured me he would, but the force field surrounding his phone prevented him from using the device to call anyone who could fix it. He hadn't ignored my pleas completely because as the picture above illustrates, he'd attempted to close the gap where the dog was escaping with an old handle of a SWIFFER broom and a small shovel.

Last Sunday, I took matters into my own hands and made arrangements to have the fence repaired. On Monday, the same day my gentleman was scheduled to arrive, Perry called to inform me the repairman he'd contacted would be there 'tomorrow' which I interpreted to mean the following morning when the sun next rose.

As I tore through the sleepy streets of Northport looking for Duke this past Friday at 5:45 am, I realized I needed a firmer grasp on the amount of time it took the earth to rotate on it's axis.  'Tomorrow' had come and gone several times while Duke continued to pillage at his whim.

I gave up trying to find him and called Perry as I pointed my car in the direction of the station.

'Is your guy coming to fix that fence today?' I asked without returning his salutation. I had no patience for social niceties.

Sigh. 'I don't know, honey,' he replied in a voice that suggested he wasn't in the mood to be nagged about the fence. His fears were unnecessary because I'd blown past the discussion phase.

'Okay. No worries because that fence WILL be fixed today. I can promise you that.'

As soon as I arrived at the station, Scott Shepherd updated everyone on the reason for my delay. I then informed whoever was in want or need of gainful employment TODAY, to call me at the station.Then things got nuts.

Texts messages were flying, comments were adding up like crazy and my FB inbox was getting hammered. At one point, three gentlemen were politely stepping around each other in order to get their own measurements while a fourth was driving through the neighborhood trying to find my house.

In the end, I decided to go with 'Bhabbie'' Martin's referral who'd suggested his brother 'Billeh' and his partner David Pierce of Pierce Construction could help me.

David and Billy did an outstanding job and they did it in less than a day. They put new hardware on the chain link fence in the back and rebuilt the wooden gate in the front. Here's the finished project:

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Their prices were extremely fair and their work impressed Perry so much he asked them to come back and give him a quote on a new roof. I'm going to keep my hands on this project or we'll end up with a new roof in 2020.

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