Friday, June 12, 2009

BAILEY CAN READ

Our little puppy, who is actually almost 4 years old now, is afraid of loud noises. We are in the rainy season in Florida. Every day was becoming a new challenge for my husband and I. You have to realize what crazed people we have become in regards to this dog. We hardly go anywhere we can't take him. If it involves a trip in the car one of us "sacrifices" going inside to either stay in the car with Bailey or taking Bailey for a walk. To say he has us wrapped around his paw, would be a fair statement. We take him for a walk at night and laugh about that little tail. He takes off in front of us, tail hiked like a windshield wiper, back and forth. When we have to leave him, we rush to the kennel to let him out when we come home. He loves his kennel. In fact, there are times even when we are home he will go climb in and fall asleep. A few years ago, while we were at a friends house we realized how frightened he is of loud noises. During a 4th of July celebration, the neighbors started about 10 p.m. and continued until 2 or 3 in the morning. There was no consoling Bailey. He shook like a small tree in a wind storm. When the lightning flashes and the thunder roars, Bailey runs to one of us for comfort. However, he won't let us comfort him. He immediately jumps down and runs. A few weeks ago, we decided to ignore him, just to see what would happen. It was so hard. I almost cried. Within the hour during an unusually violent storm, Bailey disappeared. I searched for our boy. After a few minutes, I found him in the bathroom. Sleeping very peacefully in the bathtub, of all places. I came back to the living room smiling. My husband looked confused. "Where is he?" I said, "he must have read the memo to get in the bathtub during a storm."

2 comments:

Carmen said...

I know many dogs are frightened of storms. But in the bathtub???
Our cat sneaks under our bed or tries to get under the computer, emphasis on 'tries.'

Kathryn Neff Perry, PhD, MA, LMHC said...

I know, isn't that the craziest thing? I have had many dogs over the years, and one other one who was afraid of storms. He was very content to sit on my lap until the "noise" passed. But not Bailey!