It’s raining very hard right now. It wasn’t raining awhile ago, but I thought I heard the rumble of thunder in the distant WSW. I looked at my accuweather email for the morning and it didn’t mention any thunderstorms. So I went online and looked at the radar and sure enough, there was a nast line moving towards our area from the west south west.
I had also looked out the window, went onto the deck and looked, and it was definitely darker, more gray than black, in those directions. So it was obvious a thicker storm was moving in, but not obvious that it was heavy or thunderously filled.
The radar confirmed my hearing and other senses though. I can feel these things coming. I love them too.
So I then went to the front door to stand on the porch, the dog, Lothar, was behind me and I figured he’d run away into the house somewhere since I was going to the front door. Of course that was not HIS plan. I’ve been training him more the past few days, and had wanted to start training him to come with me to the door, in the event of me wanting him by the front door for any reason in the future.
So in split second timings this was all happening as I opened the door, and I reached down to grab Lothar’s collar and zzzippp he was out the door and whipping across the front yard to the street and beyond. Whoaaa Boy! Nothing brought him back. So with imminent falling rain and lightning bolts not too far away, I had to go running after him.
It may not be known to all readers that Lothar is a super speedy pup. He’s over a year old, but still puppy-like. In anycase, he speeds around the yard like he has a fire on the end of his tail. So knowning that about him, I was sure I couldn’t catch him.
My best hope was for Frank to come out and help, and the children had ran in to find him. I ended up having to run all over the place in our little part of the street, four houses involved, ours the two on either side of us, and the one across the street. Our lots aren’t tiny so it was a lot of ground to cover and very hilly one part goes uuup and the other way is dooowwwwn. Takes a great lot of energy reserves to do such running. I am not one with much reserves. I can output the needed energy, but then I’m tuckered out and shaking for the rest of day.
I called that dog, whistled for him, sweetly called his name, slapped my thigh called “here boy!” and clapped my hands … nothing did he attend to. Nothing did he even stop for and look at me.
He was nuts. He’s never done this before and all I can figure is that something weird happened in his brain when he saw the front door and could feel a storm coming.
Well he marked this and that place, and that other place and on and on. I just couldn’t get him, a centimeter from his collar, or tail –I got that close and just couldn’t make a grab on him anywhere. Huffing and puffing I was running and trying to shuttle him towards the house and he was way ahead of me and turned at the same place he’d been time and again on his crazy tour and just went in the house. Dumb dog.
I can use exercise, sure. But that sort isn’t helpful. If he got like that daily I’d have to seriously ditch him or pay to have it trained out of him. See animals in our area get hit all the time. Our neighbors dog got out of their yard recently and was wandering around. It was a digger, and with our chickens and our dog we coudn’t keep it in our yard, it went away anyhow. So we found out later that it had gotten hit by a car and was dead.
A free running dog is not legal either, leash-laws. I have no desire to have my dog running around the neighborhood as others have been doing since this subdivision went up.
So our Lothar was in the house, and he knew I was not happy. He was non-hyper and totally the opposite of his previous adventurous self. Into his crate he went.
I’ve had some good times with that dog the past few days, thinking I was making progress with him in paying attention to me, coming when called no matter what, listening to my commands to come, sit, stay, with help, but he was doing great compared to anytime in the past I’d tried to work with him.
I guess he had pent up rebelliousness from training and the pending storm not far away released his emotions. I am guessing.
So anyhow it’s been raining since then, pelting rain, then lulls and then more rain, then pelting, pelting rain. Crash, rumble, flash, flash, flash, rumble, crash, crash, flash, crash … ahhhh.
4 responses to “The Dog and the Storm”
LOL I was “speed reading” and missed the part where Lothar actually came back to the house! I got to the end and wondered, “Did she get him???” LOL I caught it on a second read through. 😉 Our dear beloved pets can be so silly sometimes. :rolleyes:
Tamara, after you posted above I went back and sped read it and couldn’t find where he got into the house either 😉 So I do not claim to write clearly. I claim that I write all the details, they are there, just must read carefully and ingest it all to find the details. 🙂
Our pets can be so silly, oh yes indeed!
Tamara, today our eldest went out the front door to throw something in the outside garbage can, and he left the door opened. The dog should have been in the backyard, but zzoooom! He went out that opened door before I could get it shut. I didn’t know he was in the house, was just going to shut the door since it had been carelessly left opened. We have 6 indoor cats, two of which are kittens, so that’s prime reason to make sure it’s shut.
The dog has only been free roaming in the house for a week or less, so it’s just this second time that he’s been able to get out the front door with no leash on.
This catch-me-if-you-can was worse than yesterday’s version. It was mid-day, the temp was over 70 degrees and I overheat in those circumstances, if excercising particularly, very fast. 🙁
That dog went across the street, up a couple houses, then back down and then behind a few houses on the other side of the street, and then down all the way to the cul-de-sac. This is a road that is sloping downward the whole way from the start of it to the bottom. We live halfway down it. It’s not busy, Thanks be to God. And it’s that each house has at least a half acre of land and so each is at least 100feet wide, and there are quite a few houses … so down the dog went, and down I went too, after going back into the house to fetch my glasses to see far away better, and the leash just-in-case.
No good that leash was, nor my voice, nor Russell whom followed him but never could catch him, neither could I anytime I got close enough to. He’s like a greased pig and a Leghorn hen combination. He’s not the same dog out there off-leash as he is on-leash or in the house or in the backyard.
I’ve had it with the pest. Cause if I have to chase him one more time, I will not do it. He can just stay out there and get hit or picked up by the pound. Really. I like him, but too much trouble … Just cause a door is opened. He’s nuts. He goes absolutely wild eyed. He has dumb sad eyes usually, but that open door makes him crazy.
Sigh.
Shew! I wrote a comment a mile long. 😉 Decided to post it over in my blog rather than leave it here…