Much like the space station, we have an airlock.  Allow me to explain…

A reminder to our visitors… a non-football version adorns the door year-round.

Bella is quite the little escape artist, and will take any opportunity to flee.  (All Bella escape attempts are referred to as “fleeing” based upon a surprisingly adorable note a maintenance man left in our old apartment.)  When I was a child, our dogs were fairly well-behaved and listened to my mom when she told them to stay in the yard.  (That woman had some sort of magical Dr. Doolittle-esque abilities – I don’t think she had to train them.  They just listened.)  My family did experience one terrifying lost dog incident when Kandi (our Chihuahua) got lost in Richmond for a few days.  We were visiting family, and Kandi managed to slip out.  It was quite the harrowing experience – my parents even hired Bloodhounds to track her down.  Eventually, we got a call from someone that had spotted Kandi sneaking cat food, and we were able to find her.

So, needless to say, I’m usually fairly careful about the potential for puppy escape after the Kandi escapade.  Even so, Bella has managed to get around my defenses a few times.  Fortunately, her penchant for escape is often balanced out by her puppy ADHD (aka her tendency to get distracted, or “oooh, shiny!”).  Our first experience with the crafty canine flight risk also known as Bella was after a long road trip for the holidays.  While we were bringing our luggage inside the apartment, Bella slipped by and ran outside.  We chased her and I began to panic… however, she was distracted by the sight of a toy tricycle someone had left outside, and we were able to catch her. 

After that, we put Bella on lockdown.  Baby gates were purchased, and all friends and family were trained in the art of Bella containment.  Even so, Bella managed to escape while we were visiting my parents.  The scene was complete and utter chaos – my (now) hubby running frantically after Bella, while my mom hopped in the car to give chase.  My parents live in a fairly rural area – there’s a quarter mile of gravel road until you hit the pavement.  I thank my lucky stars every day that Bella followed the road instead of sprinting into the woods somewhere along the way.  I thank those same lucky stars that she stopped to sniff a flower, making it possible for the hub to tackle her and bring her back to base.  Bella really knows how to add some excitement to your day.

Anyway, after these various escape attempts, we got pretty serious about our containment plans.  At our last apartment, we only entered through the garage because it had what became known as the airlock.  There was a door from the garage to the laundry room and another door separating the laundry room from the kitchen.  Thus, it was possible to come and go without Bella ever having an unauthorized path to the outside world.  When we purchased our house, it also had a laundry room airlock – it was obviously meant to be.  I do sometimes wonder if Bella thinks we just sit in the laundry room all day…
 

(via Comics.com. Click the comic to see a clearer version.)