When we first adopted Choctaw, the volunteers told us that Choctaw was “deathly” afraid of storms.  The volunteers told us they had no way of knowing how long Choctaw was living on the streets before they found her and having no shelter was probably a factor in why she was so afraid of storms. I wasn’t sure the extent of what that meant until I witnessed it first hand.

I had transferred back to my day shift schedule in September of 2016.  I came home from work one day and could not find Choctaw.  We had a bad storm during the day so I knew she was hiding.  I checked all over the house and found her in the our closet in the back part of the house.  I guess you could say, I saw the “debris line” before I ever saw Choctaw.  What I mean by “debris line”  is there was stuff thrown all over the closet.  Whatever my wife and I had laying along the walls in the closet was now in the center of the floor.  It looked like someone had broken into our house and ram sacked it.  I still could not find Choctaw.  Finally, I saw a tail hanging out that was barely wagging.  Choctaw had pushed herself as far back in the closet as possible and laying underneath some backpacks that I had laying on my side of the closet.  She was shaking so bad I honestly thought she was going to have a heart attack.  I felt so bad for her and I honestly didn’t know what to do.  As I tried to pull her out from underneath the backpacks, she jumped into my arms and literally wrapped herself around me.  I don’t know how long we stayed like that, but she did not want to let go.  I had never seen a dog react like this to a storm and I’ve had a lot of dogs.  Choctaw wouldn’t eat and she certainly wouldn’t go outside.  As that night went on, I finally got her to eat and go outside.

After this incident happened, I went to the pet store and purchased another bed for Choctaw to put in the closet where I found her.  I emptied out the area underneath my blue jeans and put her new bed there.  It seemed to work because when another storm rolled through, I knew exactly where to find her and that’s when I took this photograph.  The photograph to the left was taken the night a tornado was on the ground in our area and it was moving fast.  I was actually in the closet with Choctaw.  My wife and Titan had not made it home from work yet. I called her and told her not to come home until the storm passed. A tornado was on the ground across the river and I didn’t want her and Titan traveling into it’s path. This storm reminded me of the tornado that came close to our neighborhood on April 27, 2014.  That tornado skipped over the river and headed straight for us.  Our neighbor across the street actually recorded the below video standing on our street.  To give you a point of reference as to where our house was in the video, our mailbox is the white one on the left.  I did not know about the video until the next day.  When I saw it, it took my breath away looking at the size of the tornado.  Thank goodness the tornado turned before it reached our neighborhood.  However, two towns to the west of us were not so lucky and numerous people were killed.  It was a horrific day and I did not want a repeat.

Needless to say, I was scared to death because this tornado was taking the same path as it did in April of 2014.  It was on the ground and skipping over the river.  Fortunately, it came off the ground and broke apart.  We had once again been spared the path of a deadly tornado.  Unlike my neighbor, I didn’t stand in the middle of the street and take a video.  This was actually my first tornado experience with Choctaw and I was in her new bed with her.  I am just thankful that she did not know what a tornado was.  Can you imagine what Choctaw would have done had she known?

Next up, my wife and I quickly learned that going to the bathroom would never be the same with Choctaw around!!