Sorry for my Absence!

Oh my! I am so sorry for my absence. I did not get hit by a train, abducted by aliens, or chased by a panther. I promise. And as for the star of our blog, Sparkie is doing splendidly! The only major worry he has encountered in recent times is lightning. The Pacific North West is not prone to major lightning storms as other areas of the county is. I am not used to them, having lived her my entire life. But poor little Sparkie was absolutely terrified of the storm. A few weeks ago, we had a storm that started probably around 5 in the morning, and lasted until around 9 in the morning. I had both of the dogs sleeping with me on my twin sized bed. Our heeler was extremely stressed out, he didn't sleep most of the night. But Sparkie is known for sleeping throughout most of the night. At 6 am, we had lightning strike just off our road, it sounded like World War Three was taking place. The thunder had to have gone on for thirty seconds at least. It was one of the loudest noises I have ever heard. Therefore, dogs having more acute hearing than humans, probably heard it even louder than we did. Poor Sparkie! He was laying on top of my stomach, shaking, breathing so heavily that he was shaking my bed. So after that loud thunder, I gave up on going back to sleep. The rest of my family was already awake, so I went downstairs and joined them for coffee. In a half hour, we all decided that the dogs were too high strung to go back to our beds, so we all crashed on the couch going back to sleep. Sparkie is no capable of jumping on the couches to cuddle, and I couldn't find him when I lie down. I fell asleep on the couch. My mom told me when she was leaving for work. She had found Sparkie camped out underneath the couch (not the one I was sleeping on) and he was still so terrified. He followed her into the bathroom when she went to shower, and nearly jumped in the bath tub. When she left she put him on the couch with me. He did not go any further away from me than an inch until the storm ended. Even after the storm, he was nervous. Luckily, by the end of the day, he was back to his playful self. Lesson learned, Sparkie is not so fearless when it comes to thunder and lightning!