I hate severe weather. HATE. My biggest fear in the world is death by tornado. As a southern girl, I've spent my fair share of time huddled in a basement listening to a weather radio, and just the sound of static-laden weather updates and the emergency alert on the radio will make me hypertensive. My fear started before the storms on April 27th- an F5 tornado "jumped" my house as a middle schooler, and then I had another frightening experience as a high-school freshman while being driven home through straight-line winds. Tornado sirens increase my prayer life and my blood pressure.
On Wednesday morning the sirens woke us up. We live on the border of two counties, so Keith went to check the tv to see where the storms were before we got Gideon out of bed. Since the storms were close to us, we all relocated to the hall bathroom- dogs included. Nelli (our labrador) associates that bathroom with getting a bath, so she reluctantly jumped inside the tub. Lucy (our stray who adopted us) followed suit. Sweet southern girls, they know what to do during tornado warnings. I held Gideon close and had a thick blanket ready to cover him, just in case. The threat passed quickly and we went about our day as usual. Unfortunately, the warning really threw off Gideon's schedule- we had a very fussy little guy yesterday.
I went grocery shopping in the afternoon, and then decided to feed Gideon before unloading the car since we were very close to dinner time. I let the dogs out and was taking care of Gideon when I heard a loud sound outside- my first thought was that something had blown off of our house. Almost immediately, both dogs were scratching at the back door to be let in. I opened the door to investigate, and was shocked to discover the source- our neighbor's trampoline had been picked up by the wind and thrown over our privacy fence into our backyard. I figured the neighbors might come knocking to see if we'd found a stray trampoline, so I went to put the dogs in their crates. Easier said than done. Both dogs were hiding and refused to come out, even for treats.
I put Gideon in his swing and went to unload groceries from my car, and heard another funny noise. Our sweet Lucy was so terrified by the flying trampoline that she'd followed me into the garage and hidden under the Journey. Once I opened the back hatch to get groceries out, she jumped in. As I went to get her, she jumped over the back seats and into the "middle back." I opened the "middle back" doors, and she jumped into the front seat. This continued for several minutes- a terrified Lucy avoiding me by jumping around our car. I think I would've been upset with her had I not been laughing so hard. Poor scared puppy! I finally got her calm enough to where I could catch her, and I carried her inside to her crate.
I got Gideon in bed and tried to take care of my puppies. Nelli would bark every time she'd notice the trampoline outside, and Lucy was so skittish that she would go running towards the garage any time she heard a noise. They got better as the night went on, but even today they're growling/barking at the upside-down trampoline in the yard.
The bright side of this experience is we have a great reason to meet and fellowship with our neighbors. You can't just toss a trampoline back over a fence.
Watch out for flying trampolines, everyone!
No comments:
Post a Comment