To Sniff a Storm on its Way
New Story Whale Bedtime Story!
Howdy, howdy!
We’re back today with a new standalone story about a little dog and a big storm.
It’s been an interesting start to the year here in Brisbane, Australia. We just encountered our first cyclone scare in decades. For a good week, the whole city was full of excitement and full of fear. Thankfully, in the end, the cyclone was not as fierce as it could have been (not to say a lot of people weren’t still affected).
And so today’s story feels strangely on theme for the year so far (at least for us here in Brissy).
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Now, please enjoy today’s story!
My eyes are fixed and focused on the green little ball in my human's hand. Every muscle in my body is tensed and ready. My tongue is tucked away; I hold my panting.
She moves the ball and my eyes move too. She fakes but my focus holds strong. Sometimes she truly thinks me a fool!
Finally, she lets the ball loose and it goes arcing high through the air across the empty yard. I swivel fast and pounce into stride. My paws dig into the grass as I launch myself one rapid leap after another.
I'm past halfway to the ball before the first bounce. It hits a rock and changes angle. My fast flinch muscles recalculate before the second bounce.
It hits the ground one more time and then I snatch it from the air! Mission success.
I run it back with a proud trot to my rightly impressed human.
I give her the ball and prepare for another throw.
I've always found it strange how humans always want to do the throwing and never want to do the fetching. The fetching is the best part!
Suddenly, just as she is about to throw the ball, my wagging tail drops between my legs and stops moving. An abrupt weird, funny feeling takes over me. The balls gets thrown, but I don't flinch at all.
It's a bit of a scary feeling when your body is reacting to something unknown. You feel like you don’t have any control.
My other senses start to catch up. I sniff the air and that’s when I smell it -- rain. Far, far away rain.
My ears pin back. The sound of thunder…
I shuffle forwards, sitting against my human's feet.
I yap briefly, "We need to get out of here!"
If only she knew!
She can tell something is wrong, but she doesn't know what.
I bark, "Storm! There's a storm coming!"
She looks around and finally notices the clouds in the distance.
She says something to me, but she sounds nowhere near as panicked as she should be.
She makes her way inside and, from here on out, I don't leave her side.
We go into the kitchen and she tries to bribe me with a piece of beef jerky.
I turn up my nose.
"Now isn't the time for treats!"
She sits on the couch and I lay on the ground underneath her feet. She can tell how nervous I am and gently pets my head.
I can't believe how calm she is. I mean it's a good thing that she’s calm, don't get me wrong. We need at least one of us to keep composed. I just don't know how she can do it.
My ears twitch with every rumble of distant thunder. It's getting closer.
I can now hear the tickle of rain on the roof.
My human rises and I follow. We go to close a window and then return to the couch.
Just like that, the storm is hammering down on the roof. My human tries to settle me, but I can feel the thunder in my bones.
I snuggle up tight to them.
Eventually, after far too long, the rain eases…
The thunder begins to fade away in the distance. I look out the window and I see sunlight. I start to untense. It takes a while, but my tail begins to relax.
The treat that was left to me starts to look appealing again. I chomp it down.
After a bit more waiting, we go back out to the yard. The grass is wet and the touch of the water fills me with energy. What storm? I zoom around until I see the ball that had been thrown earlier. I snatch it up and take it to my human.
Time to play.
Love it!