Subbing Screwup and Jip On the Loose

I was supposed to sub at Mount Olive today for one of the sixth grade teachers. Normally she emails me ahead of time with her lesson plans, but I didn't get anything from her this time. I chalked it up to me being a veteran sub in her classroom or figured she had a student teacher who would be teaching most of the day.

So, I was a little surprised when I arrived at school and found her at her desk in her classroom (with a student teacher... I was right!). Turns out, she only needed a sub for an hour and a half in the afternoon. Turns out, her student teacher is teaching the majority of the day and would be teaching for that hour and a half. Turns out, she is having a different teacher pop in to check on the student teacher so she won't need a sub at all. Turns out, she told the principal this on Monday. Somehow I slipped through the cracks! 

So, I went home and G went to work. Just as well, Jaron is teething again and has been very clingy/crabby. 

Also just as well I'm around home because over lunch, Jip broke free of his tether. 

We knew this day was coming. Just last night, G and I were talking about what to do about his rusting tether. Jip likes to chew on it, which cuts holes in the plastic coating letting water trickle onto the metal. Of course that rusts, and now it rusted to a breaking point. 

Thankfully, I noticed right away. Jeff seemed more interested in seeing what was going on in the neighborhood then bothering our animals. In fact the ducks looked pretty relaxed.

But it was only a matter of time before Jip lost interest in the goings on of people and turned to his flighty co-inhabitants. I put a barrier up at the end of the chicken area to prevent him from being loose in the front yard, closed the gate at the other end of the duck area to prevent him from getting with the goats, and locked Jip inside. 

Our gimpy chicken was the only chicken on Jip's side of the fence now. Jip had been very well behaved throughout this process, chasing the animals a little but listening to me when I called him over. This one chicken was too much for him to resist though... He went after him and cornered him in the fence. I was able to rescue the chicken and herded him through the chicken door before blockading all poultry-shaped openings with cinder blocks. 

So far Jip has stayed in and the birds have stayed out. Whew! 

But, we need a long-term solution. A dog run for Jip has been on our to do list for months. We've put it off because we planned to revamp the whole shed and adjust our chicken/duck area at the same time; winter was our deadline (so he could have a protected place in the warm shed). That deadline just got moved up!

I came up with a couple of fencing options: 

Plan A-

Plan B- 

Plan C- 

I think Plan C is the winner! Jip has his own space, but we can let him roam in one of the paddocks during the day. The goats and poultry can have the other one until they learn to coexist. And everyone has access to the warm barn.