PULLMAN — As the wild winds of last night's storm whipped through the trees, thunder boomed and the lights flickered, my dog, Stella, crammed herself into a tiny bathroom, slid her head under the toilet and kept it there.
Stella, a squirrel chaser who never backs down from a fight and religiously barks at the mail lady, is the same dog that gets overcome with anxiety and overwhelmed by fear every time a thunderstorm rolls through town.
I’m pretty sure Stella’s thunderstorm terrors stem from our first Fourth of July in Pullman when a kid blew off a couple packs of firecrackers near her fragile puppy ears.
Ever since, my big black lab freaks out when something goes boom.
Sure, I make fun of her for being a fraidy cat, while the actual cat, Clark, couldn't care less about a powerful summer storm. Rain or shine, all he wants is more treats.
Still, I can’t help feel bad for Stella when she’s crippled by fear and curled up under a toilet.
When I ridiculed Stella's fear by posting her picture on Facebook it struck a nerve with fellow dog owners. They offered Stella their sympathies, sent me pictures of their own terrified pups and gave a little advice for calming my dog’s fear.
“Oh Stella … try the bathtub,” one smart aleck Facebook pal wrote.
“I used to have to dose my girl up with kava kava. It worked well for an extra large canine willing (and proven able) to bust completely through walls and hollow-core doors. Kava kava or Benadryl,” another wrote, followed by a the international symbol for “frowny face.”
I was out of Benadryl, and have no clue what “kava kava” is or where to find it.
So I did a little research into other ways that I might help Stella — and maybe even dogs all over Chicago that really bug their owners every time a storm or a kid with a grip of bottle rockets starts making noise — find a little peace.
“It is important, however, NOT to try to soothe your pet too much,” according to the experts at petfinder.com. “Doing so can actually encourage his fear if he senses any insecurity in your voice.”
That made me feel better about not trying to soothe Stella, but did nothing to ease her storm anxiety.
Experts at Petfinder, a pet adoption site, say the only way to help some dogs during storms is to sedate them. I didn’t have any suitable doggie downers on hand. And unfortunately for Stella, she isn’t much of a drinker.
But what you can do, a few doggie websites suggested, is crank some tunes to distract your fraidy cat dog from the sound of booming thunder and whipping winds.
Stella was in luck. I tuned into WXRT, turned the volume well above acceptable nighttime levels and listened as Marty Lennartz unleashed an eclectic playlist of new music on his program, "The Big Beat."
Stella left the soothing coolness of the bathroom tile, found comfy spot on the rug and let out a loud sigh of relief as she curled up near the speakers.
By the time he played “Mad Men” by Herzog the storm had subsided … and Stella was fast asleep, her hind legs quivering as she dreamed.
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