May 10, 2004 ~ Thunder and the Wolves

Monday.

Cierra's amber eyes grew wide as another clap of thunder rolled across the valley. She curled closer to the ground next to me, and whimpered, trembling a bit, ears back, her red-tinted white coat puffed out a bit in fear. Wolves don't much like thunder and lightning. Everyone was pacing and upset.

"Shhh shhh, it's okay, Cierra; scary, I know. So loud. But the storm's a ways off yet, and nothing's going to hurt you. Shh shhh, it's okay, stop your trembling. It's okay."

She settled in next to my leg and put a paw up over my hand in the begging, "Pet me, please pet me" gesture, eyes still wide. So I scratched under her chin and behind her ears, then ran my hands down her side, pulling out tufts of her shedding winter coat as I went. "There you are, sweet Cierra, there you are. Does that feel better? Sweet Cierra girl, that's a good girl," I said, watching her carefully for signs, because, no matter how much she likes you, a wolf-dog may fear-bite if too stressed out.

As the wind picked up in the trees, the lightning moved closer, and I ran my hands through her gorgeous coat and watched her relax, I thought, this should be an entry. Soothing wolves in the approaching thunder... And she looked up at me with a content grin, just then, as if to say, "Yes, yes it should."

Footnotes:

odds & ends: Yeah, I'll write about the March eventually. Have an entry half-written but haven't finished it yet.
weather: Hot, then a cold snap, now hot again. Rainstorms. It's certainly starting to act like summer here.
bookmarked: Finished the first book in Stephen King's The Dark Tower series, The Gunslinger, quite a while back and really enjoyed it.
writing focus: Letters.
observation: Two brown-headed cowbirds doing their mating dance to a female on the neighbor's roof. It was fascinating. They sing a really beautiful song as they bow.
mail bag: Two Reflexology books from my Grandmother, The Writer magazine.
hours hiked this year: 66.75
hours volunteered this year: 131.5
cooking: Morgan made a delicious spring pasta tonight, with basil and fresh cherry tomatoes.
watching: Episodes of Star Trek: TNG on DVD, and LOTR: Return of the King again in the second-run theater.
listening: Lately, a lot of Harry Chapin, Loreena McKennitt, and Billy Joel.

online journals:

"I read of a father in a war torn post-Soviet country piecing what remains of his family back together while living in a shipping container. I see a woman I’ve hated most of my life caring for her husband for more than a decade after an aneurysm, putting aside her painting career and aspirations of the high life. I remember the black kid in high school who lived in a shack on a main highway with no indoor plumbing, and how I cowardly sat by and watched the incessant taunting he endured." ~ Ian in the April 8th entry of Goin's On.

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