Will Jake ever learn?

Dear Editor,

Owning Jake, a one-year-old Chihuahua, is making Sandra Brunkhorst old before her time. Sandra is the administrator of El Dorado Manor at Trenton. She brought him home from North Carolina after Thanksgiving in 2010. (He spend hours on her lap at her son's house.)

On the airplane coming home, she discovered that he was a delinquent doggy. He was in his pet carrier next to her when he chewed a large hole in it. At the Houston airport, she had to top the carrier so he wouldn't escape. On the flight to Denver, he let everyone know how much he hated the trip.

In Trenton at 5 a.m., he took off around the corner of Sandra's house. He remained "on the run" for 10 days. If the coyotes and the foxes didn't consume him, surely highway traffic might kill him. Finally, he was caught in a trap baited with dog food.

After shredding some curtains and chewing a rug, Jake settled into his new home. In May, Sandra decided to take Jake to a fund raiser at the Lincoln Animal Shelter. He behaved so well that she decided to travel by car with him to Minneapolis for her grandson's graduation in June.

Big mistake! Jake teamed up with Farley, the neighbor's dog, in Minneapolis. They ran away together. They were found at a busy intersection and taken to the police station. Now they were jail dogs.

En route to Trenton, Sandra stopped at Lincoln to give Jake fresh water and food. He escaped again. Sandra searched for him and called Animal Control. She returned home thinking he was gone forever.

Then she was notified by the Hitchcock County Sheriff's Office that he was in the animal shelter at Lincoln. Her granddaughter, Ashley, drove from York to get him. Ashley was very disturbed about his behavior until she saw him shaking, because he was afraid of the big dogs nearby.

Question: Has Jake, the doggy delinquent, learned his lesson? Only time will tell.

Helen Ruth Arnold,

Trenton, Nebraska