Independence Day celebrations - the scariest day ever!

Poor Suki does not take to the fireworks AT ALL. Yesterday afternoon she starting her shaking and quaking routine when little popping firecrackers were being set off in the neighborhood. We cooked on the grill in the evening, a veggie burger for Avinash and a hamburger for me. Suki ate two nibbles of hamburger and two graham crackers, but was really too upset to eat anything else yesterday.

We left her in the basement when we went to see the fireworks (which were especially loud and noisy this year) and when we got home she was a quivering bowl of jelly. To add insult to injury, the neighbors set off lots of loud firecrackers and Roman candles in the street outside our house every year and they did that until from 11 pm until about 1 am. Suki tried to hide underneath our knees at the table, underneath the bed (where she does not fit), in the corner in the bedroom - anywhere at all. She was basically inconsolable. Then after that quieted down, we had an exceptionally loud thunderstorm come through in the middle of the night. I awoke to hear her panting loudly and I tried to convince her to come downstairs to the basement where it is quieter and she feels safer. She could not be budged, so I went back to bed again. Then another thunderstorm, even louder, came through about 4 am and I was able to coax her down to the basement. I hugged her and sat with her and talked to her, but she wouldn't stop shaking and eventually turned away from me towards the wall and sat there quivering and panting. I left her there and in the morning the thunder had passed and her tail was raised and almost wagging again.

Back in Reedsburg

We're finally back from our trip to Door county. We left on Friday morning and reached Reedsburg a few minutes back. More later...

Suki serves as a guard dog!

Suki showed her worth as a guard dog in the middle of the night. I awoke in the middle of the night - everything was very quiet, except for some persistant rustling of the plastic bags we had left on the picnic table. I could tell there was a big raccoon, or pehaps two, looking through our bags for a bun we had left out. I got up and yelled at them, but they wouldn't move away. I was a little scared to approach them more closely, because so many raccoons are rabid. Finally I went to the car and coaxed Suki outside and when she lumbered out of the car, she immediately sensed the presence of the raccoons. The raccoons fled into the dark woods when they realized she was there, and Suki accompanied me back and forth from the table to the trunk putting all the bags securely away. She seemed quite interested in the raccoons, and almost forgot that she was so scared of the strange campsite and the firecrackers. Even a cream puff like Suki has some ability to protect the family in times of crisis!

To Door County

We left for Door county at around 10 in the morning. Suki started the trip on a positive note, as she usually does (In fact, she even had her breakfast!). After her morning walk, she hopped into the car with much enthusiasm. Friday started out being cold and sunny. The weather turned really cold (for July) later on in the day(~15 C). To make matters worse, it was quite windy also. Suki, of course, thought it was a tad warm that day, and was panting inside the car.

We'd reserved a camp site close to Bailey's Harbor, which is located by the joint of the thumb that is Door county. Suki behaved very well throughout the journey. She sat in the back, occupying almost the entire back seat. She got out of the car and walked in a couple of rest stops (duniawalon, read: toilets) where they had pet areas (duniawalon, ek baar phir, read: a veritable minefield of dog you-know-what). Suki, of course, was most interested in the heavily mined areas. Yuk!

We reached our camp ground at around 5 pm. We unpacked and started pitching our tent. Suki was a little interested in the place but seemed a little apprehensive at the same time. After putting the tent up, we left for Sturgeon Bay to buy some lighter fluid and wood. By the time we returned, the sun had almost set.

As soon as Suki got out of the car, she heard some crackers go off elsewhere in the camp ground. That pretty much ended Suki's camping joy. She started her shaking-pacing-freezing routine and was soon quite distressed. Eventually she went inside the car and stayed there all night, quite scared to even look up.