Phoebe has a hard time when it storms or even if it rains hard. Yesterday was one of those days. She didn’t do too badly until bedtime. She trembles terribly when the wind blows, when the rain comes down hard, and especially when there is lightning and thunder. I call her bad episodes her panic attacks. I’m sure many people have similar issues with their dogs during storms.
The lightning and thunder were fairly mild yesterday, but we did have a brief period of hard rain. When Phoebe begins to tremble, I usually give her a few drops of Rescue Remedy for pets, an herbal over-the-counter anxiety treatment. It helps. At bedtime, if she has a hard time, I will give her a crumb of Benadryl to help her sleep. Seriously, she can get very bad, and it is only over the past year or so that it has worsened to the point where she needs some help coping.
She was doing pretty well at bedtime last night and didn’t act like she needed medicating, even though it was raining outside. I fell asleep, then around 10:45p, she woke me up shaking. Then I heard it! One of our evil smoke detectors beeped on the other side of the house. I waited to make sure that is what I heard, and it was. Ugh! With every beep, her shaking worsened. Smoke detectors are worse than the worst storm that could blow through.
I knew I was going to have to take care of it. Two fans and a diffuser were not going to be enough to keep Phoebe from hearing it. So I got up, put my shoes on, and went to the garage to flip the circuit breaker for the smoke detectors and to get the tall ladder so I could remove the backup battery from the offending device. Phoebe was right at my heels, shaking like a leaf. It surprised me that she was staying so close to me and the ladder, since she hates ladders as much as beeping smoke detectors. She associates ladders with a beeping smoke detector.
It didn’t take me too long to silence the device. I left the ladder standing in the extra bedroom, closed the door, and headed back to bed – but I couldn’t find Phoebe. I looked all over the house, including in the garage and on the bed with Gene. I finally thought to look in the extra bedroom. There she was, poor baby, locked in the dark room with the evil ladder and smoke detector. I knew immediately this was going to be a Benadryl night.
Mary Christina's Musings 