THE GREAT ESCAPE ARTIST

I am not like some of these people who veiw their pets as their kids like some people one reads about.
My dog Sandy obtained from a lady who had five or 6 dogs & had decided to decrease the dog population at her home. He was I believe from what she said 5 years old at the time. He came with a name, which not being a Three Stooges fan, I promptly changed from "Mo" to Sandy, suggested by the color of his hair. Sandy, I was told was a cockapoo. I have since thought that a more appropriate name might have been Houdini, because during the 8 years, I have had him, he has made many daring escapes from my fenced backyard. I live on a busy street so it has been a source of worry & frustration when these escapes have occured.
Last night I went to an hour long band concert down the road from where I live, secure so I thought with the knowledge that Sandy was safe in my gated fenced yard.
On my return as I pulled into the garage, along with my car,in trotted my happy companion along with my van.
OK I had had my handy mn friend repair a broken board with a temporary fix on the gate< ( a board fastened with screws covering the board he had broken & unhapily got his paw stuck in a week or so ago) This was still intact. The gate was still closed with the two peices of concrete still blocked in front of the opening. He used to push the heavy gate until it opened. One other spot to check, & that was a broken board next to the gargage on the bottom of the other gate. The gate by the way consists of two huge heavy doors that open out.
There of course was the new escape route. I had previously blocked this wonderful exit by pileing a couple of firewood log pieces against the hole, & Sandy faced with this chalanged had managed once again to push them out of the way. I put them back in place, planning on blocking the hole on the inside of the gate with a piece of concrete if I could manage to drag it over to the spot, this morning when it would be daylight & I could see what I was doing.
Now one would think that this 13 year old dog who employs a lot of his day sleeping,either in the house or on the back porch would not be energetic enough at this point in his life to plan & carry out one of his escapes.
A few years back there were many late night & daytime serches of the neighborhood in all kinds of weather, while I with leash in hand, & flahlight if the case might be,combed the neighborhood, trying to find him. At times if it was in the daytime, I would spot him & call to him, whereupon with out fail, he would look at me & take of running. This particular game, I did not relish participating in. I have seen him almost get hit as he dashed across my busy street. There were numerous prayers on his behalf first that I could find him & second for the Lord's protection while he was out & about. One of the last times he made a daylight escape, I had driven into the garage & as soon as I stepped out of the car, he was off & running. Not wanting to lose time by getting his leash, I started up the street in hot persuit, but did have my car keys on one of those type of things, one wheres around ones neck. Mine says Navy on it & was given to me by a friend. A few doors down, I was able to trap him in a neighbor's yard, hold him down & attach the " Navy" thing to the ring on his collar, & leaning down because of the length of my makeshift leash, drag a reluctant Sandy back home. I'm hoping against hope that one day he will decide that we are both getting too old for this type of adventure. He has a nice deck equiped with a comfortable dog house for his outside time & a nice pad to sleep on in my room at night. What more does he want for goodness sakes?