After chasing three bull calves back through the fence over the course of the evening, and watching them practically stroll back under the hotwire, I decided I should test it myself. Some calves are just fence crawlers–It’s like a hobby for them. But most animals (including the Dog) are deterred by a little well-placed hotwire and a friendly zap on the back or the nose or whatever unfortunate part of their body happens to touch it.

Now, this hotwire isn’t particularly hot. If you’re two-legged, it isn’t really any worse than the little zap you get on any piece of metal during the winter months, but if you’re four-legged, I think it must be considerably worse. The Dog touched it once while she was wet, and she made a bee-line for her dog house with her tail between her legs. Poor thing.

So I touched the fence and nothing happened. A quick inspection of the solar panel battery house made it clear. We’d apparently had a feathered visitor who pecked out the button on the back, and pecked out the “charged” light. Well. Must’ve turned the fence off in the process, if he didn’t disable the zapper completely. Funny.