Are You Afraid of the Storm? [NOT 13/8/21]

Do you like a good storm? Black skies and thunder and lightning? Creepy, Friday the 13th, haunted house type storms? I surely do, and used to go outside to get the full experience. We are having a whopper of a storm this evening!

However, once we got Violet Chihuahua, we came to dread storms. She was beyond frightened (she had been kept outside by a hoarder, small dog in a 40 dog pack.) One time we thought she had run out of the door in fear of a storm, but we finally found her quivering in the back of the fireplace. Not good. We tried everything…and we do medicate her with doggy anxiety pills. It has only taken 10 years, but she is fine with a storm these days. 

Are pro or con a good storm? How about your pets? And Happy weekend! 

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About Elliecoo 540 Articles
Four dogs, one partner. The dogs win.

47 Comments

  1. We have been #blessed that all our dogs take/have taken thunder, firecrackers, everything in stride. Faithful Hound seems to enjoy taking leisurely strolls through a good storm, much to the annoyance of this Walking Companion. He is no doubt communing with his ancestors, who roamed the forests of northern Europe. 

    • He is a very good boy!

  2. Gino used to hate storms but now he is too old to really give a damn about anything up to and including peeing on the floor then waking me up to go outside only to walk in a circle, come back in, and expect me to believe his act for his morning treat.

    It’s comforting to know that after almost 18 years he has finally become more like me with the don’t-give-a-damn-about-anything but fuck me if I can find a way to communicate to him that he’ll still get his treat without his attempt to win an Oscar every morning. 

    • Gino is also a very good boy!  I have two words for you…puppy pads.

      • Yeah I fell for that already…and used them to clean the pee. Even if I could train him to pee on those he wouldn’t care enough to do it. It’s ok with me though. I like to have a mat by my fireplace but can’t. Other than that I have papertowel and a spray bottle handy. If my place was carpeted I’d be singing a completely different tune.

        • @Myopicprophet boys are harder than girls. Our old girls are very good. The boys, not such much.

          • Every bit of this comment of yours could be generally applied to everything even though it is specific in context.

    • Sigh. My doggo is only 12 and she’s starting up with a similar game. Kinda losing my mind over finding puddles in the kitchen five minutes after taking her on a potty trip. I wish I was as chill as you sound about it…

  3. our cats dont give a fuck about anything if they are inside….the world could fucking end outside and they wouldnt give a twitch
    if they are outside…its a different story tho…wouldnt be the first time ive had to manually extract a cat from a tree…or dig one out of the neighbours firewoodstack…
    as for me personally…i love a good storm.. especially at night…when the flashes are best..and do usually stand outside for them

    • Storms are awesome especially whilst camping and beneath a tarp.

      • /me has a chair underneath a massive pine tree
        it keeps me dry
        and isnt the tallest tree around

        • The only thing that sucks about the best storms we get here is knowing that thousands of people in florida/louisiana/whatever state gets sharpied in lost their homes. Other than that WOOHOO!

      • that might be my exception, just based on that one time I had to quickfigureoutrightdamnednow if that tree falling over was going to fall on me in my tent.
        That was just a windy morning, and it was cool to witness, but I’m probably going to opt-out of similar scenarios in the future if I somehow know in advance.  doubly so if rain is involved…

      • okay i think….looks pretty gnarly..but no pain
        still getting some blood on the bandages tho when i swap them 
        its a really fucking anoying place to get cut up

  4. Fanny doesn’t mind storms. Neither did my sainted corgi. But many years ago, when I still lived in Pennsylvania, I had a dog that was terrified of storms. She’d hide under the bed or behind the sofa. One day we had a particularly violent storm and I couldn’t find her. I looked in every room, behind all the furniture , calling her, but couldn’t find her. My backyard was on the Pennsylvania State Trail System. The gate opened right up to it. But it was an old gate that didn’t latch well. My dog was a very good girl and wouldn’t leave the yard when it was open, in spite of a strong prey drive. I looked out the window and sure enough, the gate was open. I thought she had probably gotten spooked by the storm and ran off to hide somewhere. So out into the woods I went. I walked in one of the wildest storms I’d ever seen, crying and calling her name. After almost an hour, soaking wet, I made my way back home. I went into the bathroom to get out of my wet things and there she was. She had wedged herself behind the toilet! I was so happy to see her at home and safe I wasn’t even angry that she hadn’t come when I called her. The storm ended and she came out like nothing happened. I like a good storm, we’re having one now too. But I prefer it from my sofa, drink in hand, than stumbling around looking for a missing dog. 

    • @Hannibal exactly. Glad that current good girl can’t be bothered with the storms.

    • Gino used to hide under the back of the toilet during storms for some reason. He and I have shared some awkward moments over the years as we stared into one another’s eyes both fully understanding each other’s expressions…

      myo: dude. i can’t pee with you staring at me.

      gino: dude. either the sun has run out of hydrogen 4 billion years early or the rapture is happening.

      myo: dude. it’s just clouds. chill out.

      gino: eh oh, oh eh…buddy…when did you become an astrophysicist, meteorologist, and southern baptist minister?

      myo: fair enough. i’ll pee outside.

      gino: cool…can i come?

      *gino and i go outside*

      myo: i can’t pee with you staring at me.

      • @myopicprophet I totally understand have full conversations with the dog(s). Some days they are the best conversationalists.

    • Maybe I just keep reading the same commenters and forgetting who’s where, but I can’t help but feel like a statistically improbably number of us have lived in PA…

  5. Elliecoo, thank you!

    I had a rough chiro visit and uhhhh that had a long time before I was like yeah I’ll sit and type something and then I had technical difficulties where this sweetheart dinosaur laptop took over an hour to do an update!

    • Hi @brightersideoflife actually I was the fill-in for the substitute? @KeitelBlacksmith thinks that he is your permanent Friday night NOT person? He is willing if you want an evening off always, and he can have me do them if he can’t.  We are full service NOT persons if you wish?

      • Oh I am more than happy to pass the Friday baton to you both! Friday NOT yourselves out!

    • Also, I hope that your back feels better soon. 

  6. Florida boy, so storms are in my blood. I love to watch them out in the ocean moving toward land. Lightning doesn’t startle me — I love how the air feels during a storm. 
     
    When I lived in Atlanta I was surprised by how many people were terrified of lightning and thunder. I was like, Jesus, people, if you visit Florida I hope you bring plenty of Xanax. This happens every afternoon all summer long, except bigger and louder. 

    • I can’t remember where I was, likely someplace in the SE coast (Carolinas?), where I got to sit in a house and watch a storm a bit off shore, with a bunch of lightning striking the water.  it was a pretty cool thing to observe.

  7. I don’t know about you guys, but I feel much better now that Trump is President again.

  8. I love me a good storm.  When I was in AK, it turns out that lightning and thunder are a rare occurrence–something to do with proximity to the magnetic pole, I think.  Anyway, when the lightning and thunder do make themselves known up there, it is a real whopper.  I used to love standing outside while all hell would break loose.

    Butcher Dog is fine with storms, but she hates, hates, HATES fireworks.

  9. Mixed feelings on storms.

    I love watching storms and it’s super cool to feel the thunderbooms.

    But also, I need the sump pump to keep the basement from flooding and if the power goes out I’m in trouble. Because I’m too cheap to spring for a generator and while I can rig up an inverter to my car battery and run the sump pump off that if needed, I can’t safely do that until after a thunderstorm ends. 

  10. aaaand im awake again
    woooo! full nights sleep baby!


    woooo! wheres my car?
    oh wait i dont have one….cyka blyat!
     

  11. I remember standing in the garage to watch lightning with my dad when I was a kid. I loved storms. But they seems to be getting worse and more frequent. Epic flooding, tornado warnings, microbursts… So now i get a little panicky when it gets stormy looking. Boggs doesn’t give a single shit about storms, but he adds to my anxiety because when the sirens go off or it gets bad, I need to know where he is. Gus used to jam himself under the bed, which was inconvenient. Boggs is usually splayed out on the couch, though.

    • @Pumpkinspies, do you live in tornado country? Because that is never a fun time storm…the eerie green skies…

  12. To enjoy Tahoe you have to love a good thunder storm.  This year has only been smoke for us but usually we are planning things around storms.  In fact, my brother in laws hazed me by making me drive their sailboat in a lightening storm.  I didn’t flinch because of my upbringing but it was a good story I now harass them with 20+ years later.

      • They would never say it to my face but they accept me & I cooked all but 2 dinners this week so they better!  We have fun together & compete in stupid things together.  I’ve definitely opened their eyes to some things & they have for me.  

  13. Mixed feelings.
    A long time ago, I used to love being outside in the windy-gusty buildup to a good thunderstorm.  Depending on the weather, I used to sometimes even enjoy being out in the subsequent downpour.  Fond college memories of being in humid summer Ohio, waiting for the daily storm, and running around in the rain, ankle-deep water in streets and parking lots, stealing milkcrates…
    Now…  I’d love for some more rain for various reasons and concerns, but I don’t want it to happen while I’m trying to commute – at work, cool.  at home, very cool.  weekends, perfect.  But I think that’s something of the past.  When I first moved to the SF Bay Area, about ~15 years or so ago, I used to carry a rain jacket in my messenger bag daily for a couple months out of the year, and sometimes I’d also carry rain pants as well.  And I used them frequently.  The past few years, I haven’t even bothered unless it’s raining right-damned-now, and even then, it’s often light enough to not even warrant any sort of rain gear – my body heat evaporates it almost as quickly as it lands on me.   :/
     
    But climate change is totally fake…

  14. I love storms. Love the charged air, the beauty of storm clouds, the smell of rain, trees whipping around in the wind, the sound of lightning and thunder and rain on the roof. All of it. Ahh I love storms! I think I’d love to be a hobbyist storm photographer someday but for artsy lightning shots (not for thrill seeking tornado chasing stuff).
    I have both types of pets. One cat was scared in her youth of storms so bad she’d pee her bed anytime there was thunder. Now she’s ancient and indoor only and couldn’t care less about bad weather any more. Another cat still hides in the litterbox whenever there’s severe weather outside. 

    • Pre-digital, I shot 5 rolls of slides before I caught a single usable lightening shot in Tahoe.  I still love that shot though it is nothing in how far I’ve come in photography since.  

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