When I was much younger, we had a golden retriever who was scared to death of thunderstorms–not just the really big thunderstorms but pretty much any time there was thunder. We would put him in the house to shield him from the sound of the thunder, but that didn’t prevent him from hearing it, and he would just go nuts–knocking over furniture and scratching up doors anytime he heard thunder. He did the same thing during fireworks, which meant we had to take him with us to our neighbor’s Fourth of July parties–out of fear that he might destroy something or hurt himself during the fireworks.

My parents claim that this type of behavior arose from an incident in which one of the neighborhood kids lit a firecracker only a few yards from our dog when he was a puppy and that the noise of the firecracker scared our dog to such an extent that he was forever traumatized by thunder & fireworks.

I don’t know if that incident really occurred or not, but it stands to reason that dogs can be psychologically/emotionally scarred by traumatic events when they are young the same way as humans.

I found myself driving out 40 to Memphis a lot. The “vibe” seemed just better. Better Blues!

#1 yes it is a serious expression. along the lines of gimme my damn food already! :O)

Unfortunately, she passed away this Saturday morning.

She fought a week long battle with a (at the time) unknown illness, but made huge improvements close to the end of the week.

Unfortunately, she took a turn for the worse late Friday afternoon. After a Friday night ultrasound and Saturday morning laparoscopic exploratory surgery, metastasized pancreatic cancer was found to be the cause. She was euthanized while under anesthesia to spare her any more pain.

Because I telecommute and rarely leave the house we’ve been side-by-side for nearly 24/7 for the past 14 years. This is the only part of being a dog owner that truly sucks.

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