Derecho (The June Watershed)

A few weeks ago, my friend John mentioned something about a watershed moment with his dog. I had never heard the term before, so I looked it up. A watershed moment is basically a critical turning point. In this case, he meant when she lost her pure puppy energy. He said that his dog, Marley, had her watershed moment at about two years. Then he followed up that comment by saying, "But she was unique." For my sake and Chassie's sanity I hope that she was truly a unique case. By unique I mean, it took her a very long time to lose that puppy energy.

We had a "watershed moment" this past weekend. A meteorological phenomenon occurred in the Washington, D.C. area that wrecked havoc across the area. This phenomenon, called a Derecho, knocked out power for nearly 1.5 million people. We were one of those affected, but let me start from the beginning....

Friday morning I took Bella to PetSmart's Doggie Day Camp. We figured that if she gets extremely tired playing with four other dogs during an hour at class, she'll get worn out by playing with twenty or thirty dogs during a six to eight hour day. It worked. I dropped her off around eight-thirty in the morning, Chassie picked her up around three o'clock in the afternoon and she was worn out. We figured that she would be the girl that stayed awake the whole time, looking for something new to excite her and I think that was the case. When Chassie brought her home- to our boring house- where nothing exciting happens, she plopped down on the floor and slept until I got home. Our normal routine played itself out, I took Draco for a walk and then I took Bella downstairs.

At this point, Bella is laid out tired. She doesn't move much for anything. It's probably Chassie's idea (she is the smart one), let's get Draco and Bella together in the same room. I'm game, let's try it. We are trying to get them to interact, but interact calmly together. At first, she's a little excited, but eventually she's more interested in gnawing gently on her rope bone. I do stress gently at this point, because she is a fan of destroying rope bones within hours. Draco is laying on the floor, Bella is on the couch, Chassie and I are looking at each other, not exactly understanding what is going on. Thank you PetSmart Doggie Day Camp, if I wrote online reviews, you'd get a five star rating.

During our euphoric experience, we are watching the U.S. Olympic Trials on NBC4. A special weather statement interrupts our viewing pleasure. Doug K. says we've got bad weather on the way. Then as I listen a little more involved, he straight up says, "You will lose power." Chassie is already on her way upstairs to get candles and our emergency radio we can crank by hand for power. I wasn't worried, then the light behind me started to flicker. For some crazy reason, I thought it might just be the light bulb going out and as I turned on the lamp across the room, Chassie echoed my thoughts by asking if I thought it was just the light. Wishful thinking on our part. Sometime around 22:30 the room went dark and all our appliances with it.

We watched from the basement as trees bent over in the wind, lightning lit the sky, then the rain came down and gave us a first hand look at what ripped through the area at hurricane force winds. Two candles lit our basement as Chassie cranked the radio with the weather band in full force. The little robotic voice kept us updated as the storm blew past our neighboring cities at 65 miles an hour, leaving downed trees and power lines in its wake.

Draco, who is usually terrified of thunderstorms, laid between the couch and the table, relatively calm. It may have been the UltraCalm that Chassie had given him, but normally that only works so much. Bella was a little more interested as she would walk to the basement door, where we would stand watching the lightning and wind. When we figured the power was not turning back on we decided that our best option was to stay in the basement. Bella's place is in her crate when she sleeps. Her crate is in the basement. We normally put her in her crate and leave her for the night, two stories below where we sleep. This was the first time, except the very first night we had her, we slept in the same room. I'm not sure what Chassie's feelings were, probably very apprehensive that she would not enjoy being kept away from us, but I was expecting her to bark and whine most of the night.

She went in her house and was a perfect angel. In fact, I would not have known we were sleeping in the basement except at 01:30 a series of random beeps, fifteen seconds apart woke us up. At first I considered the end of the world, though it wasn't hot enough on second thought. I stood up and looked around. I'm confused, what the hell is making that noise? Chassie says something about the Verizon box behind the T.V. Good call, the battery backup, that's the sucker making all the noise. I kneel down and press buttons, eventually figuring out there's an "alarm silence" button. Back to bed.

Saturday morning is the apocalypse. I won't sugar coat it. Chassie freaks out. What are we going to do with two dogs and no air conditioning? She presents that question at least three times to me. Once when we wake up, it's six thirty. My brain does not work before nine o'clock. She talks out loud better than I do and eventually things start moving. Seven thirty we are at Giant, our supermarket, looking for ice. No ice, we buy water, Gatorade and Diet Coke. Five twelve packs for  twelve dollars, nothing like a deal when the Apocalypse is upon us. The second time the question arrives is on our way home. I get a text from my boss/co-manager "Need help" and my first thought is at work or at home. I'm trying to figure out what I have to do to make Chassie happy. Long story short, I finally get a hold of Jeff, who has just recently moved out to Leesburg. I ask if he has power. He does.  I ask if he's willing to take in Chassie and two additional dogs for the afternoon. He will. There are angels among us. Thank you Jeff. Now for the kicker, Jeff, will you come out here and pick up one of my dogs so Chassie doesn't have to drive an hour out to your place with two dogs that like each other but don't want to be close to each other and I can go to work?

The question comes a third time and I have an answer. I look like the hero, but really it's a friend who has power and a big heart. Thanks, dude. I still owe you.

"I'll leave here in fifteen, twenty minutes," he says. You're a savior, I think to myself. I'm off to work, which in and of itself was a hectic experience. Enough about me though, this is about the dogs. I get a text from Chassie at some point in the afternoon that Bella's peed twice and pooped once inside the house. I'm pretty sure she adds another one, maybe two peeing accidents inside the house before I get there.

I'm going to say she's just excited. There's a lot of stuff going on. She's entering a new place with dogs she's only met once before and when we add our two dogs to the mix, there's seven dogs. That's Jeff and Krista's four, plus a foster puppy they have and our two dogs. Seven dogs in one house... it sounds like a lot. It is a lot.

I arrive at their place around 18:30 and enter this large pack we've created. I know these dogs relatively well, two are mine and the four Jeff and Krista have, well they kinda like me. Except for Kayla, but she's a different story. Loyal, that one is. I've known Montana since she was a puppy, as I may have mentioned before I practically helped raise her. She must remember that. Within the first ten minutes I arrived at Jeff's house, after greeting everyone and making my way over to the couch to sit down, Montana sat down at my feet for some petting, which I'm happy to give her and have always done. Bella pushed her way next to me and Montana was not happy about that, growling at my dog because she got a little too close. I'll admit that I'm not the perfect man, but damn do the ladies love me.

We went to dinner, locking Bella in a crate away from home. She wasn't too happy about it at first, but by the time we returned home she seemed fine with being confined away. Draco was the only dog to have free-reign of the house. He only had two rooms and a hallway, but at least he wasn't behind bars. I guess old age does have it's benefits.

The biggest thing from the first day of our excursion was that Bella and Draco were part of a pack. They did not interact like we would consider normal, which is to say Bella demanded to play and Draco refused. Instead, they both were able to interact with other dogs and accept the rules of a new household.

From the way it went over the weekend, for it to go as smoothly as it did, I think this may be a watershed moment. We've got a few ideals that we're working for and the fact that even one of those is possible is enough for us to continue on. I'm not so sure they jump up and scream their presence, but this was as close to a confirmation as we could hope for. For those that think I've left out the bulk of the story, I have. There's the whole day Sunday and the return trip, not to mention another Day Camp day on Monday and the big event that is the Fourth of July. No one has ever told me how long you are willing to listen. Therefore you all will wait. It's as simple as that.