Thunderstorms are Scary

Sam's experienced thunderstorms before, and although he certainly didn't like them, he wasn't petrified of them. Usually if he's outside and it thunders he'll jump and look around for the source of the noise, and that's about it.

This afternoon, however, we had a pretty bad thunderstorm come through, with almost constant flashes of lightning and frequent, deafening bursts of thunder. Not the kind you can hear rolling up, either, but the kind that sound off like a gunshot with no warning.

Sam was in the kitchen with me, and he was not pleased with this. He kept pacing between the door and my chair, his ears pinned back, his tail tucked between his legs, keeping low to the ground. I finally sat with him on his doggy bed and pet him--it's always easy to tell when Sam is upset because he lets you pet him without trying to mouth you or play with you. I finally got him to lay down in my lap and continued to stroke his ears and along his back and hummed lullabies to him. After ten minutes or so, he started trying to bite at my hand, and he rolled over on his back and pawed at my arms and wagged his tail.

Crisis averted!

Also, because I don't have a picture of this episode to share, I figure I'd post one of Sam being a goof from his (slightly) younger days. Behold Sam at 9 weeks:

Rawr! I'm a dinosaur!!