Yesterday, my husband and I were doing housework. The basenjis really don't like the vaccuum so I had let them out in the backyard while I vaccuumed. My husband was working in the office with the window open. Somehow, over the noise of the vaccuum, he heard our gate open and close. He ran out of the office and asked me if the dogs were in the backyard. I told him yes, and he told me what he heard. I ran to the backyard while he ran out front. He saw a group of teenagers walking away from our home holding Kiya!!! Sammy was nowhere to be found. My husband confronted them and they told him they were trying to catch our dogs for us because they escaped. He asked how they escaped and they claimed they had scaled the back wall to our home. We know this isn't true since it is a 6 foot cinder block wall and they simply are incapable of doing it, plus he heard the gate open. My husband grabbed Kiya back from them and they scattered. We put Kiya back in the house and went searching for Sammy. It took us over an hour, and I have to say it is not easy running around the neighborhood at 8 months pregnant! Fortunately, Sammy had found some kids to play with in a park on the other side of our neighborhood and those kids were able to help us catch him. We are very lucky we were able to get them both back safely.
Needless to say we have now bought a lock for our gate. We never leave them outside when not home, but this happened when we were home and they had only been outside a few minutes. I'm not sure if we should call the police and report it or not, since we don't know who the kids are. I really wish I knew who their parents were so I could call them.