Feel that? Something outside is changing. There is electricity in the air, and it makes the tiny hairs on my long, red body stand on end. My mother, Schatze, sits next to me on the porch, head extended forward as she take a long sniff. She looks very regal, a master of the elements, but then again, there isn’t much we little dachshunds aren’t masters of.
Momma lifts her chin higher, opens her mouth, and let’s out a deep, soulful howl just as a huge clap of thunder is heard. Almost instantly, other dogs in the neighborhood pick up her cry and howls can be heard all around us. I’m so caught up in this amazing symphony that I almost miss my chance to join in. Even though my howl could use a little work—it’s not quite the rich baritone I want it to be yet—I raise my voice high, adding to our beautiful canine song that heralds the arrival of the first big storm of the season.
We live someplace called Oklahoma. In my five months of life, I actually didn’t know that until yesterday. It never occurred to me that our neighborhood wasn’t the whole world. Then again, I’m still a puppy, and my sense of time and space is not quite like Momma’s. The older I get, the more I appreciate her sage advice and wisdom. She seems to know a little about everything so when she told me late last night that storms were coming to Oklahoma, I believed her.
“How do you know?” I asked.
“Can’t you feel it, Oliver? Something is coming. It’s in the air.”
“Hmmm…no, I just feel kind of itchy.” To prove my point, I scratched behind my ear.
Momma grinned. “Silly, puppy. Use your dog senses. As the storms get closer, you’ll begin to feel their power.”
“Power? Are they dangerous?”
“Some storms are stronger than others,” Momma admitted. “But that doesn’t mean they’re dangerous.”
“What do we do when it storms?”
“We sound out the howl to the neighborhood, and then we take shelter inside the house. You do know what a storm is, right?”
I shook my head. “Not sure.”
“It’s like when it rains outside, except instead of being gentle, Mother Nature tends to be furious. There is lightning and thunder, along with crazy winds.”
“Is it loud?”
“Very.”
I thought about that as Momma went outside and studied the warm night air. I peeped out through the recently installed doggie door to watch her. She sniffed here and there before coming back in.
“Yep. A storm is coming!” She bounced around the kitchen.
“When? How long before it gets here?”
“A few hours. We’d better get some sleep.”
With that she settled into her bed, and I trotted to my crate in the living room. Olivia, my seven year old owner, was already in bed, but her mother, Trudy, sat on the living room couch watching TV. I could hear the sounds of Jack, the man of the house, snoring in a different room. Trudy looked at me, and I wagged my tail at her.
“Storms are coming, Oliver,” she said, pointing at the TV. I looked at a radar screen with lots of red, yellow, and green dots on it. “I just hope we don’t get any tornadoes.”
Tornadoes? What a funny word, I thought as I closed my eyes and began to drift to sleep. Wonder what a tornado is….
*****
As Momma finishes howling and the noise from the other dogs in the neighborhood dies down, I notice the wind picks up. It’s not gently brushing against my short fur as it normally does. Instead, it pushes and pokes, making it hard for me to keep my balance on the porch. Rain begins to fall and the way it slaps against the ground is painful to watch, almost as if the water is angry about something. A streak of light slashes against the dark sky, illuminating for an instant, puffy and dangerous looking clouds.
“We need to go inside!” Momma calls.
We dart in through the doggy door, and the wind follows us for just a second, flapping the opening back and forth. Suddenly, I am worried. The electricity in the air, the fury of the wind—it’s frightening. All of my puppy senses are on edge. Scared, I run into Olivia’s room and whimper at her bedside. She needs to get up. She needs to see this! Maybe she knows how to fight against the storm.
Olivia rolls over and one of her small arms dangles over the bed. I jump up and give it a good licking until finally her eyes open. A loud crack of that awful thunder makes the house shake, and she sits up, rubbing her eyes.
I whimper.
“Its okay, Oliver,” she says and picks me up. “Are you scared? Do you want to sleep with me?”
I bark at her and she puts me in the bed. I snuggle against the soft sheets, feeling the warm spot her body has left. Nice…
But even under the sheets I can hear the awful claps of thunder and the wind howling around the windows. I don’t like it.
“Olivia!” Under the sheets, I hear Trudy’s voice. “Get up, honey! We have to take shelter.”
Olivia is pulled from the bed, and as Trudy carries her away, I hear her say, “Momma! Wait! We have to get Oliver!”
“I’ll get him from his crate,” Trudy says.
She doesn’t know I’m under the covers.
I come out from my hiding place and jump of the bed. It’s a long way down. Normally, I would use the ramp that Jack built, but for some reason it’s not up right now. As my feet touch the floor, I take off running out of the room, barking as loud as I can.
Momma is running in circles in the kitchen, and she adds her strong voice to mine.
“Is the family up, Oliver?” Momma asks.
“Yes. Trudy said something about taking shelter.”
“That means a tornado is coming! C’mon.”
Momma runs into the living room, colliding with Jack’s long legs.
“There you guys are,” Jack says and scoops up Momma. “Come with me, Oliver.”
I follow him to the bathroom. Wait a second. Why are we going in here? They can’t mean to give me a bath in the middle of a raging storm, can they? But then I notice something really odd. Trudy, Olivia, and Jack are all crowding into the bathtub with heavy blankets. Momma burrows down deep and barks for me to hurry up. The house begins to shake, and it sounds like a freight train is coming down the street. Olivia is crying and Trudy tries to comfort her, while Jack wraps his arms around them.
Mr. Fluffy Wuffy. I left him in my crate. He’ll be so scared by now! My stuffed panda has been through a lot, and he has the holes in his body to prove it. I couldn’t bear it if something happened to him. Instead of getting in the tub, I scratch at the door, determined to save my panda!
“Oliver, come here!” Jack calls.
“Oh, daddy,” Olivia wails. “Make him get in the tub with us.”
“It’s going to be okay, honey,” Trudy soothes her. “It’s just a really bad storm. You’ll see.”
I don’t like that Olivia is scared or that Jack looks so worried. It makes me mad that Mr. Fluffy Wuffy is stuck in the crate and that this storm is causing me to lose my beauty sleep! Mean old storm!
I start barking then, louder than ever. Maybe I can scare this storm away!
Bark! Bark! I am Oliver, the mighty dachshund! You can’t come in my house, Storm! Go rain somewhere else! Bark! Bark!
The wind gets really loud, as if it is trying to beat my voice down, but I just keep barking. I will not be defeated.
And you know what? Suddenly, everything is quiet. I stop barking to listen. The wind begins to calm and the rain turns soft, easy. There is still thunder, but it seems to be getting further away.
“I think it’s over,” Jack says.
“Thank God,” Trudy drags a hand through her hair. “It’s okay, Olivia. It’s all over now.”
Olivia continues to cry though.
Momma looks over the edge of the tub and gives soft whimper. Jack eases her onto the floor and she runs to me.
Licking my head, she says, “You scared me half to death, my brave little dachshund. I do believe you frightened that storm away!”
I smiled at her and wagged my tail. “I did, didn’t I?”
“It was the most courageous thing I’ve ever seen!” She smiles. “I can’t wait to share the news with the other dogs. My boy challenged a storm and won!”
I am pretty amazing.
After a few minutes, my family calms down enough to get out of the bathroom. It’s very early in the morning still so we can’t tell what damage has been done by the storms. All I want to do is sleep.
“Mommy, can Oliver sleep with me? He did wake me up after all, and he warned me about the storm,” Olivia says.
I wag my tail as Trudy looks down at me thoughtfully.
“Just for tonight,” she says softly and then squats down to pat my head. She tucks Olivia back in bed and then places me under the covers, too.
I snuggle close to Olivia and drift to sleep, confident that no more storms will bother us tonight.
****
(…to be continued)
Related posts:
- Puppy Tails – Oliver Thinks Outside the Box
- Puppy Tails – Oliver Protects His Family
- Puppy Tails – Oliver Worries
- Puppy Tails – Oliver Meets the Vet
- Puppy Tails – Oliver Gets Fleas
