My Crazy Dog Has Another Epic Freak Out That Leaves House in Pieces

She's gone and done it again.  After a good six months or so since our dog, Lexi, had her last meltdown.  Typically it's loud noises and storms that send her into a panic.  I sure didn't hear thunder yesterday, so what set her off?

I normally leave Lexi in her SPCA-approved cage that's been rigged up to hold her after her numerous panic attacks had left the steel cage broken and useless.  During one of the first storms in her new cage she pulled on the bottom of the door of the cage until she snapped the steel and scurried her way underneath.

I went back and used a shirt I'd cut up to individually tie in between in each steel bar, ensuring she'd have to bite through 30 or so strips of t-shirt to escape.  That had held her at bay until just a few weeks ago when she finally worked her way through the last of the remaining strips of shirt.

In that wonderful time between escapes from the cage we'd spent over $1,000 fixing her various messes.  Ever door in the house seemed to be missing baseboard and drywall from knee-level and down.  When she freaks out she does anything to leave the area she currently occupies, be in the back yard, the garage or a bedroom.  I've replaced somewhere in the neighborhood of 50 fence pieces in the backyard from when she's escaped into the neighbor's yard, where she can then escape easier.

All the nuttiness I've dealt with over the years, and yet I still left her in the bedroom yesterday instead of in her cage.  I knew it was overcast, but there was zero chance for thunder.  Despite no nasty weather, no fireworks and no Ft Hood training exercises, I came home for lunch to find her panting in the bedroom with epic destruction all around her.  I was frozen, unable to move, trying to process what I was seeing.

What I was seeing was another $300 being spent fixing the dog's mess, but as soon as I could muster the strength to move I started digging through the bits and pieces of drywall to make sure she didn't destroy the new carpet we installed last year to replace the carpet she'd torn up during a previous storm.  Luckily for her (and me) there was no damage to the carpet.

The mystery remained, however, as to what set her off.  After discussing with my (very angry) wife we came to the conclusion that a sound of scurrying inside the walls my wife had heard earlier in the morning must have been too much for ol' Lex to resist.  There might have been a mouse in the wall that Lexi wanted to exterminate with extreme prejudice.

I don't know if she got the critter or not, but she won't be given another opportunity to do so.  She's now on permanent daytime cage restriction.  We'll never be able to keep up with her damage otherwise.  She's the perfect dog for our family.  She's just not the perfect dog for our drywall and door baseboards.