My dog is not.

He is so very afraid of thunder and lightning that when the weather changes and the humidity is high as it is want to be here in Kyoto, I don’t see my boy. Literally cannot find him.

This has culminated in the ultimate frustratingly long and most difficult walk yet – coupled with a return of the GORBt. duuuun duuuuuuuuuuun.

These past two weeks Sasukes walking outside has become very challenging due to it being the rainy season with high probabilities of thunder and lightning on a godly scale. As a result we have either not walked at all, rushed our walk or changed the time where possible in order to get out to walk. More recently he has refused to budge. Knowing Sasuke better now I have been able to track the changes in his behavior and watch for signals that the weather is changing or that all hell is about to break loose. However, I am human and occasionally I have missed the signs – to. my. own stupidity.

Two days ago, while nursing a shoulder injury, I managed to persuade him to go for a walk and to his credit he did. We made it to the river ( oh no! its a teen horror movie all over again – you never go down to the river aaaaaaaahhhhh!) and yes. yes it happened again. Except. This time it was in broad daylight I could see what it was and what Sasuke did to it after he managed to attack it still on his lead. And I did. and I didn’t get bitten! Thats right – I did not get bitten! Huzzah!

So for wild animal lovers – the OTTER!!! (thats right!! vindication! I was right all along!) played dead after lunging for Sasuke. Sasuke did not kill it, break its neck nor rip it to shreds. It is still alive. sigh. After struggling to get him away and change his focus, I had to pull and encourage Sas to climb up the steep embankment back to the walkway along the river. What happened next was not like Sasuke at all. He did not wan to come home, kept looking over his shoulder at cars passing by and wanted to hid into every nook and crevice which could provide him shelter. On a busy sidewalk as you can imagine – there isn’t any.

An hour or so later, we made it home and he settled in the genkan for the evening and that was it. Still shaking, panting too, ears high and alert, and in a very anxious state. He refused to eat his dinner and didn’t want ice chips. I monitored him and thats when the weather decided to break and it all finally made sense (to me. the stupid human). About an hour or so after he came out, ate his dinner and drank what was originally the ice chips. This behaviour has been going on for two weeks now (not the GORBt saga – that was a second one-off) and I have come to the decision that he knows what’s best for him and I take his lead. Sometimes he will hide under a table, sometimes in the kitchen and the rest of the time he is in the genkan where it is dark and quiet for him. I leave him be with food on the side and ice chips ready and waiting for him when he wants it. Not much else I can do without unintentionally causing more stress.

So here I sit. Typing this with the sliding doors open, enjoying an evening inside, listening to the neighbors yappy over anxiously stressed territorial micro dogs out on a walk, not walking – Sasuke sits in the dark genkan with ice chips nearby, dozing off until something makes him open his eyes. All things being fair – Id rather be out walking. . . avoiding the otters and the yappy dogs. . . with him.