thunder dogs

The thunder came rolling in about 5:20 am this morning. I hate thunder during my "sleep time".
Thunder means that our Golden Retriever, Xena, is going to park herself on my head. You can be sound asleep....one roll of thunder....no matter where she is in the house...she will immediately race to the bed, leap up and plant herself on your head! She is terrified of storms and loud noises (don't even get me started about the 4th of July!)...that's how we ended up with her...I adopted her from the animal shelter about 8 years ago....animal control had found her running in a field outside of town....our best guess is that someone took her out for her first "hunting" experience and when they fired off the gun she ran (hunters call that "gunshy" and to them the dog is worthless). Poor Xena just shakes and shakes during thunderstorms....we've tried calming her (then figured we were just feeding into her anxieties) and now we just accept it as a part of who she is. We don't "do anything" now....we try to be "calm role models" and she does do a little better. Unfortunately, the Spooker (our terrier/dachshund mix adopted the day before Halloween) has decided after 7 years that thunder needs to be barked at. So Xena leaps onto my pillow as I'm sleeping, immediately followed by Spooker standing on the end of my bed barking every time the sky rumbles. Our latest rescue, Skippy, (a 1 year old 6 pound Italian Greyhound) is now learning from the Spooker to bark at that "bad noise"! So now the two of them bark at the thunder while Xena stands on my head! Not the way I want to be woken up in the morning......(but knowing that the next couple of months I have to just accept it as we go into storm season in Kansas)
The other two indoor dogs (Phoebe...(yorkie) and Zoe...(very old long haired dachshund) just keep right on sleeping.
Some people actually believe that dogs are just "dogs"....but each one of our 10 dogs has a very distinct personality.
Xena....amazingly great dog...loves all people...she even shakes hands....major tail wagger!
Phoebe....the term bitch definitely applies to this female dog!...she's a little doll and sooooo pretty (and she knows it) but at 7 pounds she definitely rules the roost around here. She can put our 100 pound male golden to his knees! She is also "leash phobic"....she has no problem walking on a leash...it's the leashes on the other dogs...as soon as I snap the leash on Xena, Phoebe goes crazy...she will bite at the back of Xena's legs, jump up and grab Xena's leash and pull on it...then as I snap the leash on Skippy, she grabs his leash, jerking and pulling backwards....it is absolute chaos....we have tried and tried to break her of this habit...to no avail.
The Spookanator.....also known as "the dog from hell"....he can be as sweet as pie...but try to take a chewie away from him or be a guy in uniform and "it's on"......(we found out later that his previous owner, a deputy sheriff, had drop kicked him a few times)...spookay suffers from "fear agression"...we deal...we love him...enough said
Little Miss Zoe.....at 15 she is now totally deaf and doesn't see as well as she used to....she has always lived in "her own little world".....she definitely is quirky.....she is "obsessive-compulsive" and has little patterns she always follows...it's always the same path in the yard, the same path through the house.....and instead of going to the door to tell you she needs to go out...she sits next to your feet and whines ...a very pathetic poor me whine (then you stand up and if she heads for the kitchen she wants food, if she heads for the door she wants out)
Skippy....also known as "skippy dippy" and "skinny ass", is just totally and completely insane. Think of a cat on meth.....this dog is crazed...(and I understand most Italian greyhounds are this way)....they love to climb like a cat....he manages to get up onto things you can't imagine...the other day I walked into the laundry room and he was standing on the dryer (remember this is a small dog....think chihuahua with long skinny legs)....one lady's IG's actually manage to get up on top of her refrigerator!! And they bounce. And they want to play HARD with whoever will play with them...he is constantly trying to get the cats to play.....the cats ignore him...which makes him only try harder. He's a total clown!

That's enough for today....I'll explain the other 5 dogs tomorrow! (and yes we are crazy too....who the heck has 10 dogs except for maybe Caesar Milan!!)