Ambivalent, She Met the Darkening Sky

Leaves, actual leaves, are on the trees and shrubbery in front of the house! Hallelujah!

Along with this happy bursting of green, summer's arrival has also been marked with unyielding thunderstorms. We've had steady lightning and thunder for about 16 hours now, and a good amount of rain. For a while, the outline of the mountains east of the house was brought into sharp relief by an extended, silent lightening storm. I love those storms. It was pretty fantastic.

Oh, I just love how fresh everything smells, how the prairie grass is suddenly, confidently, pumped with green

I used to love thundershowers. Nothing would make me feel as cozy as to have flashing and booming outside, all the while snuggled up inside, warm and dry under a comfy blanket, reading a good book with the sound of rain on the windows to keep me company. Winter blizzards don’t have quite the same feel. Maybe it is because thunderstorms boom with the promise of new life and warmer weather, and snow storms seem to blanket the earth in another layer of cold, urging us all to just hibernate, already

Now, however, with that crack in the sky my first thought is Buster. The poor little guy will get himself so. worked. up. over the thunder that his entire body shivers. You can see his giant bat hears shivering.

Break. My. Heart.

A. and I are very conscious not to reward this behavior and we treat him as though nothing unusual is going on. But, I do have to keep a careful eye on him, anymore. Last summer, he started freaking himself out so badly that after any of the particularly intimidating booms, after a brief delay, he’d starting running around and peeing (invariably on the carpet. BAH!).

So, last night, I was on high alert, waking and listening after a new round of thunder to see if Buster was running around the house, sprinkling as he went. We escaped last night dry but exhausted, and I am wondering what is in store for us all.