So yesterday was the coldest day of Winter so far and I arrived home to discover there was no power! Are you freaking kidding me, Xcel??? A quick glance across the street however showed Christmas lights a-blazing at the neighbor’s house. Ugh.
For some reason my little block seems to get hit by the evil power fairies periodically. Normally this isn’t a problem but like I said, it was the coldest night of the season and it was expected to snow all night long. And while candlelight is kind of groovy in a romantic sort of way when there is electricity, it does nothing for a tired person who just wants to come home to play with the dog, make a nice hot dinner, and catch a couple episodes from the recent Breaking Bad marathon, and not have to eat a PBJ or nosh on a few dry crackers in the dark. When I called Xcel to report the outage and get a sense about when the power would be back up, they said, oh yeah, we know all about it and we’re hoping everything will be back to normal by 9:22 (yup, they were that exact on the timing) but if I had any other concerns or issues, I should ‘go online to report them.’ It was 6:10. Hell-loo people?? I DON’T HAVE ANY FREAKING POWER, YOU MORONS!!! How am I supposed to go online? Does anyone know when companies will begin to understand the concept of optics and how stupid they can appear to their customers sometimes?
One problem with the power going out is that every electric clock in the house has to be reset not to mention a complete reboot for the satellite dish. Power outages also seem to play havoc with one certain smoke alarm (for some unknown reason) and it was in overdrive chirping its displeasure at the power cut. I had no idea when that bad boy started chirping away but Sam was nearly beside himself when I unlocked the door. When I first got him nothing, and I mean absolutely nothing fazed him. Now it seems that chirping alarms completely wig him out. And there are a few other things that I’ve noticed in the past year or so as well that also tend to freak him out, but the smoke alarms are ginormous in his mind.
Trust me when I say there’s nothing like trying to comfort a 60 lb. hound who’s scared out of his wits and trying desperately to either climb into your lap or get as close to you as possible while you try your hardest to keep him from stroking out. I’ve had dogs in the past that didn’t do well with thunderstorms or fireworks, but Sam always seemed immune to them, until recently. Loud noises are starting to become problematic and that annoying chirping sound ranks right up there on the Top-10 wig-out list. Sam was drooling all over, pacing around like a caged tiger, panting like crazy and generally being uber-stressed. Once I got him calmed down (or so I thought), we snuggled together for body heat and comfort and waited till the power went back on. Tick, tick, tick. Ever notice when the power goes out how time crawls ever so slowly? Yeah, super s-l-o-w-l-y.
Eventually the power was restored but Sam’s affable demeanor sure wasn’t. Every ten minutes or so, he wanted to go back outside and check the “pee-mail” or whatever until the smoke alarm reset its quiet self. Did I mention it was the coldest night of Winter? While going potty when it’s needed isn’t a problem (even when it’s inconveniently cold), I sure as hell don’t want to stand outside shivering while he breathes deeply and gets his calm juju back on! He woke me up at midnight, at 1 AM, at 3:22 AM, and again at 5:12 AM. Bastard. By 5:12 I was ready to get up but certainly wasn’t prepared to again stand out in the sub-zero temps so he could survey the length of the alley and take extra time sniffing every nook and cranny. He was still so stressed out he didn’t even eat breakfast.
By the time we went for our morning constitutional an hour later, he was all gung-ho frisky as if he were running the Iditarod (BTW, did you know that back in the 1988 Iditarod, musher John Suter entered the race with a team of standard European poodles but rules were passed thereafter allowing only northern breeds like Siberian huskies and Alaskan malamutes to race. Seems many of the poodles were dropped off at checkpoints due to frozen feet and hair-matting problems–boy can I relate to that-Sam has to wear boots in the snow). But enough digression…back to the wussy dog.
Keeping Sam corralled so I didn’t break anything on icy sidewalks wasn’t easy but maintaining the quick pace kind of helped keep me slightly warm. After an abbreviated romp, he was finally calm enough to eat and take a big dog stretch and give me that “Hey, I’m going back to bed look.” I, on the other hand needed to re-shovel the night’s snow accumulation and then drag my sorry butt to work. I know he’s gonna sleep 98% of the day, and as payback maybe I should tickle the hairs between his toes tonight. Just thinking out loud here-but who am I kidding, I’m going to bed early! 😉
So bottom line question is when did this strapping, devil-may-care, athletic dog suddenly become a wuss when it comes to noises? Has your pooch’s behavior changed recently?
There’s a New Year on the way and the pawsibilities are endless! Live, Love, Bark <3
“For example, you probably won't find the Wii at a senior cee2,rnRt1;Hey, I disagree. If ever there were a videogame system at a senior center, the Wii would be it.
Poor Sam, that chirping would drive anyone up the wall. Looks like he might have a Thunder Shirt in his future – I need one now for Klaus too, who never used to care about noises or anything until Basket Case Lulu came along. Gotta love it when the good dog picks up the bad dog’s behaviors despite everything we do to encourage the opposite. Sigh.
hello sam its dennis the vizsla dog hay i do not blaym yoo for this at all after all it is kalld an alarm and that meens it is suppozed to be alarming!!! persunaly i do not like ennything wot chirps or beeps or screetches or chirps and beeps or beeps and screetches or chirps and screetches or birps and cheetches and ummm wait i think i am gitting konfyoozd ennyway better sayf than sorry and sayf is ware the alarming thing isnt!!! ok bye
Our street has the same issues during those hard winter months!
I imagine smoke alarms are crazy loud to dogs! They drive Chase insane as well!
poor Sam…. that’s awful. Easy loves the alarm of the fridge door, it’s like “your walk in restaurant is open” :o) we have the same idiots at our electric company. they cut the power in our street for 6 hours (an needed 8) to fix something. As I called them they said they informed all customers via mail… how shall I read this email without power and internet connection? uhoh!
Butt anyway. Lets hope for a good 2015, may it bring good things to all of us :o)
So sorry…..been there and it’s not fun. Doing anything for New Year’s Eve? Other than going to bed early? See ya next year and may it be a super one for you!
On Tuesday, December 30, 2014, Tails Around the Ranch wrote:
> Tails Around the Ranch posted: “So yesterday was the coldest day of > Winter so far and I arrived home to discover there was no power! Are you > freaking kidding me, Xcel??? A quick glance across the street however > showed Christmas lights a-blazing at the neighbor’s house. Ugh. For some > re”
OMG the poor guy. We had a smoke alarm go all chirpy over the summer and Sampson was just like Sam. Beside himself. He actually went outside and took a big dump, (I think it scared the shit out of him.) 😉 He wouldn’t be calmed either. I finally had to take him back to work with me and after a couple of hours he settled.
When we got a new refrigerator it had an alarm on it if you left the door open too long, guess what? Yeah, that beeping freaked him out too, although we quickly shut that one off. Christmas he couldn’t take the sound of the little ones playing a flute. I’m not sure if he’s just use to the peace and quiet or he’s becoming sensitive to noise, but I feel your pain. I hope all have recovered now. 🙂
Aw, poor Sampson. Funny how things literally scare the crap outa them (I left that part out of the post about Sam-he was truly upset about his accident and just wanted that damn thing to shut the hell up). Thankfully, we are all toasty warm now and noise free and looking ahead to a pawsome New Year! 😉
We think Poodles were banned from the Iditarod because they were kicking Husky butt and it got embarrassing for the hard core mushers.
No one wants being shown up by a frou-frou dog! 🙂 Have a safe, warm and Happy New Year.
Ever thought about cutting the wires on that smoker alarm and going back to the good old battery operated kind? None of the kids here can stand it either.
Yeah, I tried that but it still chirped so just decided to disable it (but only because there was another one a few feet away.
Well, you trust your power to a Microsoft spreadsheet program so what do you expect? Poor Sam, nothing wussy about being freaked by an obnoxious smoke alarm chirping on and on. On the bright side, you did have a nice, warm 60 pound very fuzzy comforter to keep you snug.
Note to self: buy property on the Big Island and get off the grid! Kill two birds with one stone-solar power and no snow to shovel! 😉
Never a dull moment, eh? Maybe the sudden change in routine riled Sam. Hopefully he’ll settle back into himself.