Cabin Fever

We are mostly blessed in Southern California to be able to be active outside about 355 days a year. Where I live, near the ocean, the average temperature is in the low 70's and almost every day is a Chamber of Commerce day. We don't have snow, sleet, hail, gales, tornadoes, hurricanes or, for that matter, enough rain usually. We have been ten years now in a drought, but it looks like this winter we will get enough precipitation to reach our normal rainfall level of about eight inches. This weekend has been one of the few that has kept Sergi and me indoors because of the inclement weather. Sergi's having a tough time staying indoors, but it beats the alternative.


For the most part, Sergi is one brave dog, but yesterday I found his weakness: rain. He is miserable in it and wants nothing to do with it. The first time he went out and raindrops hit him, he yowled like a junkyard dog. It was like little balls of fire were pelting him from the sky. When asked to walk through a puddle, he almost became immobile. He couldn't figure out how to get around the puddle, so he actually sort of "tiptoed" through it, as if getting his feet wet would cause him to melt. It is actually hilarious to watch (poor puppy!).

In between cloudbursts today, I took him outside for a short romp and run to get his energy out. He tore around the front yard like a bullet. The term "FRAP" is used for this kind of wild running, an acronym for Frenetic Running And Playing. His tail is tucked, his head down and he runs like a racehorse going for the finish line. I tried taking pictures of it, but mostly he was going so fast I had lots of empty frames of nothing but grass.

One major thing I noticed today is that Sergi is losing his puppy shape. There's a big change starting in his body structure – the transition from cute rolly polly puppy to dog. His abdomen is starting to show a tuck and he is developing his waistline. His legs are getting longer and he will soon be starting his lanky, gangly stage.


This is always such a bittersweet time since maturity signals progress and is so much easier to deal with on a day-to-day supervision basis. But it also is a hallmark of the loss of those cute little puppyisms, the innocence, the antics that only babies provide.