That Was Just...Weird

Something very odd happened this weekend. We had a storm roll through on Saturday, not a major storm, just some thunder, rain and wind. I was standing at the counter between the living room and kitchen, working on Reyna’s scrapbook, when Reyna suddenly wedged herself between me and the wall, pressing herself against my legs. My first thought was that she wanted some affection and then she’d go back to playing. Turns out, I was wrong. As I was petting her, I realized it had started thundering. After a couple of minutes, I asked her if she was okay, and she looked at me with a very anxious expression on her face. I petted her a bit longer, and when she finally took a couple of steps away from me, I went back to work. Within a few seconds, she was back between me and the wall, leaning against my legs. I walked over to the chair so I could sit down, and she walked with me, glued to my side. I sat, she sat and leaned, and I petted and rubbed her for several minutes. She didn’t give any indication that she was ready to be unattached, so we went over to the couch to get a bit more comfortable. Duncan woke up from his nap, decided to join us, and crawled up on the couch at the far end, and then went back to sleep. Reyna sat on the floor next to me for a while, then laid down, the whole time in as much contact with my body as she could manage. When the rain actually started, Miss Stubborn-Independent-Don’t-Help-Me-I-Can-Do-It-Myself-I’m-Not-Scared-Of-Anything (except bags of leaves in front of the neighbor’s house) actually climbed up on the couch and laid down BETWEEN me and Duncan. This is a dog who never shares the couch with Duncan, only rarely shares it with me, and even then, I’m not allowed to pet her more than twice because she’ll get up and leave. But she curled up in the center cushion and not only let me pet her, she wouldn’t let me stop petting her. She stayed there the entire time it rained, just looking out the door and watching the rain swirl around. I don’t know what was going on with the storm, because it certainly wasn’t the worst we’ve seen, but my girl, who has never been scared of a storm, was extremely agitated. Not in the sense that “normal” dogs would be – there was no pacing, no whining. But for her to lean against me like that for so long, and then to willingly get on the couch between me and Duncan...she was definitely freaked out about the storm. After the rain stopped and the thunder faded, she hopped off the couch and stretched out on the floor. I could tell she was worn out from the drama of the event, but she wasn’t quite relaxed enough to take a nap. Duncan, of course, slept through the whole thing.