There's A Storm Brewing

There's a thunderstorm brewing outside of my house right now. It's thundering, but no rain. The rain is coming though. I smell it. I am glad I decided to take Aspen on an early walk today. I usually wait until late afternoon, but I decided to take her earlier today because I was just in the mood to see the neighborhood. We live in a nice neighborhood that makes it easy to walk the dog in. There are sidewalks on the street and the sidewalks are lined with beautiful trees of all varieties. Aspen loves her walks. She loves to get out and explore the neighborhood and, on occasion, meet new people. She's a people dog. She never meets a stranger. Today we took a different route than what we usually take. It's a longer route but it was something different for both of us. We walked down an alley just to see what was down there. The alley split between back yards of different houses and there was at least one dog in every fence. Aspen is a bit apprehensive of other dogs so I was in a hurry to get her down the alley and back on the sidewalk. We came up to a home with privacy fence in the back yard. The privacy fence was a bit higher than most privacy fences I see and I thought nothing of it at the time. Then I found out why. I looked to my right when I heard vicious barking only to see the head of a HUGE German Shepard attempting to jump the fence. The fence was too high for the Shepard to jump, but nonetheless, Aspen and I were both scared. We quickly scurried down the alley and back onto the sidewalk. I had no trouble getting Aspen to hurry. She and I were on the same page. Let's get the heck out of here before that monster jumps the fence. Aside from that, it was a nice walk.

The house has somewhat of a somber feeling to it right now. The cats are snoozing, the kids are playing quietly, the hubby is watching TV, and I'm blogging as usual. Aspen is afraid of storms. She doesn't like the thunder. It makes her nervous. She usually tucks herself away behind the chair during a thunderstorm. I'm surprised she doesn't cry. For some odd reason, I think the cats enjoy a good thunderstorm. They start to come out from hiding for the day and become more loving during the storm. They're my calm during the storm. Buttons has been unusually loving today. He's always affectionate, but today, he has not left me alone. He's demanded loving all day. That's strange for any of my cats. Perhaps he just needs the comfort of his mom during the unstable atmosphere he must smell outside. I've heard that animals can predict a storm coming. You know me. If I'm curious about something I'm bound to research. According to this site, animals can, indeed, predict the weather. I found that site quite an interesting read. You should check it out too.

Just in case you're interested, you may wish to visit this site or this one for more informative reads on animals predicting weather.