Thunderstorms

Oh my.  Thunderstorms are NOT good things to have anymore.  We have two animals that are completely terrified of them.

Bit is the first.  We've known about this for awhile, since we have had her since September 2008.  She is quiet about it, but will retreat under furniture and will refuse to come out at all during the storm, and afterward only with great coaxing from us.  I've tried amusing her with toys and attention when the thunder starts to keep her distracted, but it just doesn't work, so I just let her hide under the couch now even if my first instinct is to try to comfort her.

But Argos had a far more dramatic reaction this afternoon.  I heard the thunder rolling in, and didn't think too much of it, in fact we were getting ready to leave to make a run to Dairy Queen.  But then I noticed that Argos was trembling.

At first I was really alarmed, thinking that he had taken a chill for some reason - I HAD given him a bath just this morning, and didn't blowdry him since it wasn't cold outside.

He was trembling so hard that he could barely stand, with his tail tucked hard.  And this continued throughout the entire storm... trembling violently and panting.  Every time it would thunder, it would get worse.  We've read that you're not supposed to baby a dog TOO much during a storm, so that they don't learn that the fear and trembling is a good thing, and will reward them with much love and attention.  So we tried our best to ignore him while still being present.  We lay in bed and watched a movie on Jeff's iPad, and had him up there with us at our feet.

He was miserable, but I like to think that he took SOME comfort from having us nearby.  The thunder gradually subsided, and he slowly stopped trembling.  He's been out of sorts ever since, though.

He even refused icecream once we did make it to DQ!  Though we don't know if that's normal for him or not... we've never given him any before, so maybe he just doesn't like it?  That seems deviant to me, but this IS the dog that doesn't like peanut butter, even though everyone keeps telling me how much greyhounds are supposed to love the stuff.

Anyway, I'm going to feel bad for him the first time that there is a thunderstorm when he's home alone.  Hopefully he'll just hunker down on the couch and ride it out.