First, his cousin-dog Molly came to visit for the holidays too, and she and Zim are bestest buds. They love playing with each other and really wear each other out. The basically didn't stop playing the entire time they were together.
Finally, Zim got his first snow and oh, how he loved it. He was half-bounding through it and half stalking it and he's just had a grand old time with her. I've been desperately hoping for snow because I knew he would love it and he did! Watching him run around in the snow was definitely all that I hoped it would be. More, in fact.
So, my mother in law was getting rid of some milkbones that had gotten wet (with icky sewage water) when the bathroom had flooded due to some pipes being destroyed under the house (so, you know, trying to make sure the dogs didn't get sick from eating gross sewage food) and she left the back door open while she did. Zim walked right out. This was, possibly, I think, because he was wearing his harness, as he is not normally prone to door bolting (although perhaps saying he doorbolted is inaccurate since he just walked calmly outside instead of running through like he'd never seen the sky before). I was near him, so I followed him and called to Fathead and my father-in-law to help me. Unfortunately, however, despite walking calmly and slowly toward him, Zim evaded capture and kept hopping along happily through the snow. Eager to explore, and perhaps confident due to the fact that Mommy and Daddy were nearby, he started away from the house and through the street. My father-in-law asked me about food, so I ran in to grab the pork we'd been heating up for my lunch. By the time I got back out, I could no longer see Zim and my father-in-law was calling to Fathead to stop chasing Zim (at a walking pace), but since Zim wasn't stopping when Fathead did, he kept forging (again, at a walking pace) after him, unwilling to let him get out of sight.
The next time I saw Zim, Fathead had him clutched safely in his arms, safe and sound. He had captured the Great Explorer when he'd stopped to pee on a tree. However, this was only after Zim had wandered into the road, which is a highly traveled one with fast traffic. Honestly, even thinking about my baby on that road and what might have happened just makes me sick to my stomach. The worst part, of course, is that it was hard to know what to do. We were unwilling to try walking away or stop following him, because we didn't want to lost sight of him and that's usually when he decides he wants to go find you. He wouldn't come when called or stop as he didn't want to be caught and have his fun (and, in his mind, perfectly safe and probably almost normal, with Mom and Dad nearby) little adventure cut short. What this really means, I think, is that I need to implement the recall-training program I've been thinking of putting him through for the past couple of weeks. We need to come up with a new "come" command and practice with him on a long line and then jackpot him something fierce upon complying (either forcibly via the line or freely) with the command. Hopefully this will give us a better option should a situation like the escape today ever come up again.
