My difficult child

It has been exactly 2 months since we brought Jessie home. That should have been enough time for her to adjust to her new spoiled life, but no, she still needs some work.

Coming back into the house is her biggest problem. She has refused to come back in ever since that first cold rainy nasty night when I missed one of The Hub's gigs because the little wanderer was out there for 5 hours avoiding me.

There was a week or so where she would go into a smaller garden fence and wait to be captured, but then she changed her mind about making it so easy.

For a while I could let Cyrus out to play with her (previous post) and then he would "catch her".

She has been dragging a long leash since about the second week. I was able to grab the end of it, until we got snow. Now she is smart enough to know exactly how long the leash is, and exactly where it is behind her. 

I have tried offering food—tiny pieces of dog biscuits, kielbasa, cheese, chicken, or big plates of our dinner, her dinner... At least now she almost always comes running for it (progress!). She will come close enough to get the food, even take it from my hand, but then she charges off if I even look at her (middle pics).

We have colder weather on the way. I left her out there at 7:20 am this morning when it was about 44° and barely raining. Then it rained harder for about an hour. She did come up on the porch several times. She was 3 feet from the inside door, bits of kielbasa on the floor, but she would leave them and run off as soon as I opened the door. 

When I finally ignored her long enough to have breakfast, the sun had come out and she was back to sitting in one of her safe spots by the fence (top pic). It was almost 10 am when I finally gave up and went out with Cyrus to get her. 

Cyrus and I are both exhausted. We are definitely not used to this much early morning activity.