It Was A Dark And Stormy Night - And Tyler Was Pissed.

Wow, last night was kind of interesting. I'm a weather fiend, so whenever bad weather threatens, I'll be glued to the NOAA website monitoring things.

All day yesterday they were calling for the potential for strong thunderstorms in our area throughout the evening, even a 'higher than usual' probability of tornadoes.

All evening long I watched tornado watches and warnings pop up all around us, even at one point a warning in a section of our own county, about 15 miles north of us. But here, all it was doing was being a bit breezy, was incredibly warm (it had gotten warmer as the day went on, till by 9:30 at night it was downright balmy), and there was an amazing light show going on to the north. The flashes of lightning were almost constant, like the grand finale at a 4th of July fireworks show. Yet it hadn't yet rained a drop, and I hadn't yet heard one rumble of thunder. Eerie.

Well, it eventually got to us sometime after 10:00. For only about 10 minutes we had some crazy intense lightning and thunder, a couple of them sounding like the wrath of the gods smiting something just around the corner. There were two enormous flashes and explosions of thunder very close by.

Tyler had gone to bed sometime earlier (on a pillow in blanket on the floor in our bedroom), and I'd left him to it because he'd had a rough couple days and I figured he could use the rest. After those two huge bangs and flashes, I shortly heard him walking around in the kitchen, so I went to get him. I knew he's never really liked storms, though he's usually only been mildly upset by them.

I picked him up and took him downstairs where we were hanging out watching TV, and noticed that he was shaking violently. I mean, uncontrollably, almost like he was having a seizure. Man, did I feel bad for him! Of course, I hadn't expected those two loud lightning strikes, as it had been doing little before that, but I felt bad anyway - he'd apparently been in our bedroom, asleep, and was woken up by that monstrous noise, it must have scared the hell out of him.

I sat down on the couch with him beside me, but he was still shaking so violently I ended up pulling him onto my lap and cradling him like a baby. I had Greg cover us up with a blanket, and just held on to him like that for probably 45 minutes. It took about 15 minutes for him to finally stop shaking, then he fell sound asleep. It was really adorable, because he's never done anything like that before - he likes to be near me, curled up next to me, but he's never crawled right up in my face and gone to sleep like that.

This morning he feels much better. He actually woke up with a tail wag, something I haven't seen from him for a few days. He looks bright-eyed and perky. He hasn't had enough of the new food to help yet, so I assume it was the doggie aspirin helping with the pain.

And as for the storms, we escaped with nothing more than a little rain (though it's ungodly cold today!). But despite feeling like I need a parka, I am going plant shopping today. Maybe I can't plant them till next week, and maybe I'll have to put them in the garage (since there's actually a chance of, I can't believe I'm saying this, snow flurries tonight), but I will at least go shopping for them today. Maybe as a bonus no one else will want to be out shopping in this winter-esque weather, and I'll have the place mostly to myself.