Who will give in first?

The first independent item that I ever wrote that received a lot of positive reaction among my family, (as opposed to my letters to them) and which was the inspiration for both these blogs and this Blog site*, was about Our First Born’s Dog, George and his persistence at getting to the other side of any obstacle put in his way to stop him! And there have been as least one more since then, and this is another, or even two more.
When we moved into this place, there was a pool but no pool fence, so we had to put one in which effectively cut the backyard in two and for a while that caused no problems; until George decided, for some reason still only known to him, that he wanted unimpeded access to the other side. Access that he not only achieved but the source of which, eluded me in discovering for some time. Eventually we discovered that although he looked too big to Squeeze through the bars, he not only could but did. And apart from putting netting all along it, which I don’t want to do, there is little to stop him. And as he can’t get into too much harm there, I’m not bothering. (No He won’t go near the water! The other dog did and had to be fished out once, but as he doesn’t also get through, it is not a real danger.)
Under our house, is a small dug out and concreted section that was made into a walk-in storage and work shop area, while the rest slopes away to about 18 inches at the lowest point.
At first the dogs used to sleep under the whole under- house area, but as most of this is dirt or sand, and as they both have woolly hair/fur, they got a lot of dry dirt and soil on them; which they later transferred to the carpet inside the house. So another scheme for their night sleeping arrangements had to be made. At first that was into the Garage, which worked fine; til we had a great storm one night and the garage, being at the bottom of a concrete drive, ended up with 3 or 4“ of water in it and one dog getting sick from the related chill!
So back under the house they went, but supposedly confined to the concrete half with a temporary 7 or 8 metre long barrier of whatever material was on hand that I could find, including some pool fence, Garden trellis, Old screen door, Tarps, a fold up Table and a couple of old trestle tables, a bit of plaster board, etc., whatever.
Well, nothing really worked. He got through the pool fence; He climbed up and over the trellis. He clawed through the plaster board twice: Once when it was the only thing stopping him so he chewed his way through under the bottom. Then when I put a piece of wood about 2 foot high in front of the plaster board, he simply stood on his hind legs and chewed his way through the plaster board above where the wooden board stopped protecting it!
Anyway, for the last few nights I have won the battle there, but that hasn’t stopped old George still trying. As I may soon be losing the trestle tables, and unprepared to go to the expense of a more solid and permanent barrier, as we will not be remaining here for ever, I still may end up giving in to Him! Or they will end up back in the Garage again, as we have largely resolved the Flooding problem: we Hope!?!?.
As seen above often the end result of our giving in is not lack of will, but lack of real impedes to spend the time and or money required to win. What about you today? Are you like George and prepared to never give up, no matter what the obstacle, and keep going? Failing in one spot yes, but then moving along and finding a weakness elsewhere? Or like me, are you only prepared to go as far as finances and potential danger warrants?
As hinted above, had it been the other dog, getting through the pool fence, with his love for water, we would have long ago had some form of additional protection for the fence. Likewise, if George was getting out onto the road, again we would do what it takes, not to just keep him in, but to keep him from danger.
So in closing; is that obstacle that you are currently facing, really worth the effort it takes to fight it? If so, keep fighting on and do whatever it takes to win. But if it is not worth the effort now, give up now and channel your money time and effort into to a more beneficial and winnable fight? Over to you now.
*But not posted on blog site till January 2007.