Well, after being such a good boy at work yesterday, I thought that maybe… just maybe… Darby would be OK to stay in the cage. The only problem was that I knew I had to work till about 7pm because I had to do a demonstration at 5:30 for a potential customer in California. When I got home it was about 8pm and I was greeted at the door by 3 dogs rather than the expected 2. So, I started my search for what was destroyed and then how Darby escaped.
Destruction: The first thing found was my favorite pair of shorts. At first glance they appeared to be OK, but just moved to the hall. But, after I picked them up, I discovered that the right leg of the shorts had a 2 inch hole in almost a perfect circle torn out of the shorts. (I fixed this by taking an old brown sock which I cut and sewed into the hole.) Then when I got to the bedroom, the damage was clear. Darby had pulled the dust ruffle into his cage and completely ripped it off of the bed.
Escape method: Darby had discovered that the panel with the door on the side closest to the bed (on the short end of the cage) could be bent and so he was able to separate the wall from the top of the cage and slip out. The cage was deformed but I am amazed that he was able to get through the gap.
