Theresa Lewis

The adventures of Misty and Sasha continues

Many dogs freak out during a thunder and lightning storm. My Samoyeds were like that. At the first low rumble, Misty and Sasha both would run frantically through the house looking for a place to hide. In the house where we lived in Montreal, we had a small powder room without a window. It was an ideal refuge for the dogs and they felt safe in there.

There were other times when Misty and Sasha felt safe huddled with my husband and me. In those cases, even though they were with us, they were still terrified by the sound of thunder. I used to let them hide under the blankets.

I remember one time when we went visiting and a huge noisy storm broke out. I had no windowless bathroom for them to hide in and no blanket for them to crawl under so I put an old facecloth on their heads and told them they were safe. I was with my brother at the time and to say the very least, he was disgusted to see me put a facecloth on the dogs’ heads, but as soon as I did that, they instantly calmed down.  My thought was that if it calmed them down and made them feel safe, it was a good thing to do. My brother thought our dogs were ridiculous wimps.

Every day before I would leave for work, Misty would stand in front of me and wait for me to tell her what was happening for that day. It was really kind of cute to see her take up her position to receive her daily instructions. I would tell her at what time my husband would be home from work for lunch and to take her and Sasha for a walk. I would tell her if we were expecting any company during the day, or if my dad was going to go out for the afternoon.

One day, I remember giving complicated instructions to Misty and Sasha because we were expecting severe thunderstorms that day. Apart from the usual details of the day, I told them about the impending storm. I said that if they were scared, they could wake dad up and he would take care of them. As I was walking to the car with my husband, I mentioned to him that I don’t know why I go through that routine with Misty and Sasha every time we leave the house because I doubted that they understood any of what I said. Boy, I was so wrong about that.

It just so happened that the storm started shortly after we left home. The thunder was so loud and the lightning strikes were every couple of seconds. I was sure that Misty and Sasha were terrified out of their minds. I hoped that they were smart enough to hide in the windowless powder room where they always felt safe.

When I got home from work at the end of the day, my dad told me what happened that morning. Dad never closed his bedroom door tight. He always left it slightly ajar. He said he was sleeping when all of a sudden his door burst wide open and banged against the wall. Both Misty and Sasha jumped on him in bed and burrowed under the covers. He said it gave him an awful fright because he had been in a deep sleep. He said that he had no idea why they had done that.

I laughed at my dad’s story. He said the dogs had never done that before and we had had plenty of storms in the past. I told dad that before I left for work I had heard that there was going to be severe thunder and lightning storms that day so I had told Misty and Sasha that if they were scared, they could wake him up and he would take care of them. I guess they did understand what I told them that morning. I learned to never underestimate the intelligence and understanding of a dog.

More adventures of Misty and Sasha to follow

The End