Bravery

Bravery is relative. Bravery comes in all different shapes and sizes. Sammy is small, relatively. Sammy's bravery is small....but fierce.
Sammy, though he loves snow, dispises rain. I have said it before, and I bet I will have many more blogs on this topic. To Sammy, falling water droplets are the devil's handywork (as well as birds, squirrels, rabbits, LEAVES, hair dryers, and good byes, but those are different topics).
Erik & I brought home Sammy last August to our other apartment. There is not typically much rain in August in Nebraska. And when there is, it's overnight. Sammy could sleep through any rainstorm, as long as a neighbor's dog didn't bark. (Barking dogs are like Sammy's alarm clocks from hell. Aside from me getting up, it's the only thing he pops out of bed for.) Sammy's exposure to rain was limited. He would ever so slightly, tippy paw into the grass if it was wet. Just one claw at a time. And, if you picked him up and set him in it, all 4 paws went as outward as they could. Though not much for our little dwarf dog, it was quite funny. Then would just stand there stunned.
There was only one rainstorm that consisted of any thunder. And it was only a few claps. Those were more than enough. At that apartment, we were on the third floor (yes, that was the time period he was still too short and too scared to do stairs by himself. it was WAY fun to carry his little bladder up and down those flights 14 million times a day.) I worked nights and evenings then and was able to be home with him during this mid morning storm. Sammy was so freaked out he paced up and down the apartment. When there was a clap (thank goodness no lightning for us to see) he looked at the ceiling and barked at mother nature! He was not having this!
Summer faded into our short Fall. Fall smashed into the Infamous Winter of 2009-10. Snow came for the first time on his half birthday, October 10. He was immediately a fan. No need to tippy paw or pace or bark. Just bounded in like his lineage traced back to the sledding dogs of the Arctic. Winter proceeded to dump snow on Omaha, Sammy continued to smile.
Eventually Winter stumbled, unwillingly, into Spring. Spring has been good to us so far. Little rain. No storms. Today, that has changed.
For the last week, the meteorologists (or weather gamblers) have been calling for rain yesterday, today and tomorrow. I have been on the fence about this. I have a big scary test tomorrow (Historical Geology. All of the geology and life of the entire Paleozoic and Mesozoic.) and rain for 3 days could help eliminate distractions. Or ...create more. I have been hoping and hoping that at least one of us would be with Sammy for his first Spring storm to reassure him it's natural.
Yesterday, barley anything. And he slept through it! Today that changed! We got some hard rain. We were both home and in the living room with him. He seemed a little anxious, but not bad anxious. Sammy even looked a little curious. We had the screen door open so he could sniff all the fun smells and feel the breeze. Maybe it was the deciding factor because his curiousity grew! We were lucky and the rain came from the Southwest, and our patio is on the North side of the building. I grabbed his collar and put Sammy on his stake and rope. He inched forward. I went out to the porch and he came with me. He started to go out in the yard, felt rain and backed back up. Went a coupld of inches down and tried to go back out to the yard, felt rain and backed back up. He looked at me and I told him it was all ok (I think he understands, probably not, but it worked). He went to the gutter draining and watched the little corgi size river. Sammy put his nose to it, and backed right up. Back to the yard. This time he went into the rain! It was a soft rain by this point, but he was in the falling water! When he would look back, his eyes were barely open. When it picked up, he darted back to the patio with his eyes closed. Really, I don't blame him. I cover my eyes in the rain, too.
He continued his back and forth in the rain. Only going out when it was a soft rain. When it really picked up, Sammy just laid down on the cement and watched. I was so proud of him. We also had a clap of thunder. He acted as though he didn't hear it. So either he is super brave and it's all ok now, or he was too busy watching me make tacos to be bothered by Mother Nature. Only time will tell. But I was so proud of my little brave dog!
Today when I was checking The Daily Corgi's website (www.thedailycorgi.blogspot.com) there is a video posted where a corgi, Chloe, is testing out the IPad. Chloe's reaction is much like our first experience with rain and thunder last Summer. If you have/know a corgi, love corgis, know Sammy, or really, just love dogs with personality, you'll love this video.
http://thedailycorgi.blogspot.com/2010/04/video-biscuit-chloe-meets-ipad.html
OR follow this link to the YouTube video of it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3xdcx2WUcU&feature=player_embedded#!
I've watched it like 6 times and it still makes me laugh, and think of my little Sammy!