This past week we had the first rain of the winter season. It came a few days early. Normally, Jews pray for rain in the holy land after then of the current holiday season. The more reverent even wait a couple of extra weeks so that individuals who came on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem would have time to get home before the downpours. This is all well and good, but not the aspect of what occurred that I want to share with you.
We have two dogs. The older one is 13 and has a touch of arthritis. She is a loving animal and takes almost everything that happens around her with equanimity. The younger dog is very different. He is much smaller, and was also very timid when we brought him home as a puppy. External scary events, like thunder, frighten him. he climbs up on our bed seeking protection.Fortunately, this first rain storm was not accompanied by lightning and thunder. But there were strong winds. In the middle of the night, about 2 AM, those winds caused an interruption of our electrical power. It affected the whole region, and it did not last for more than a few minutes. But Barkley, that’s the name of the smaller dog, didn’t know that. He jumped up on our bed and tried to crawl under the covers in between me and my wife. His entire body was shaking. His tail was down and his ears were laid back. In short, he was one very scared little dog. Of course, he awakened us. We spoke to him in soothing tones and petted him reassuringly. I got up a groped through the darkness to reach our emergency flashlight located near the main door. By the time I found it, electrical power was restored.
There were 2 more brief power outages during the night. Each one sent our little dog into a spasm of violent trembling. The shaking stopped when the lights came back on. When we were children, we used to call someone who was reluctant to do something that might appear dangerous a “Fraidy Cat”. Little did we know that years later we would have “Fraidy Dog”.
Wetherhorn 