Thunder and his Thunderventures
Once upon a time, there was a little man called Thunder. He prowled the streets of Austin, TX for food scraps and that is how he survived. That is until a dog rescue organization helped him and through their website we found our baby. We are not exactly sure how long he roamed astray, but after meeting Thunder you would understand that he was out on Thunderventures.
What do we imagine happened? Thunder enjoyed his days at home but the family he was living with was boring and he wanted to go on to his adventures, which he calls Thunderventures. One day a squirrel was hanging out on the other side of the fence and Thunder ran for it. He hunted the squirrel until he was victorious. He was mistaken for a house dog, but not Thunder he is always on the hunt. Unfortunate for the squirrel and his old owners, but very fortunate for us, Thunder had left his home and he decided that he would explore the area a bit. After all, he was a bit curious of what lurked beyond the walls. He was known in the streets by other animals to be tough for his size and they all knew he stood his ground... and he still does.
One sunny day, while he was sun bathing in a patch of grass in the streets of Austin, TX when the rescue organization was informed of his whereabouts and went to his aid. Thunder must have thought he had been found and he needed to escape, after all, who were these people getting a little too close for comfort? Thunder likes his personal space and I can't imagine he was about to give up easily, but he must have felt kindness in the people who went to his aide and he agreed to give in. When Thunder realized that he would be cleaned, fed and cared for he realized it was not so bad. Thunder began living with his foster mom for a bit, she fed him kibbles and bits which he did not like...but he had little choice so that's ok. After all Thunder is a survivor!
My husband initially wanted a bullmastiff, then one day I got home and the following words casually slipped from my mouth "A dog is coming over for a visit, he may be a schnoodle and I want to meet him. I have a good feeling about him and he's adorable". It took a second for my husband to process what I said but after hearing the "I am completely convinced of this" tone in my voice he said "Fine, but I can't promise that we'll adopt him". We both fell in love with Thunder the day we met him. I soon let the rescue know that we would be adopting him and I went to pick him up to bring him to his forever home. The rescue estimated Thunder to be 11 months old.
I never had a dog for very long when I was young, my mom was not a huge fan of the idea and though she really tried I don't think she was really ever huge on taking care of dogs on top of taking care of me (I was probably a handful). After I picked up Thunder I was so excited, I never thought I would be as excited as I was given that I had spent a bit of my childhood being afraid of dogs. Thunder disappeared for a second and I noticed he was on the floor mat of the backseat. He quickly jumped up and I thought nothing of it. I did notice there was a weird poop like smell in the area and I assumed he really needed a bath or I stepped in dog poop. When I got home I realized my new family member had literally taken a big poop in my car. Our friends were so excited that we had gotten a puppy that they all came over to visit. Their help was much appreciated with how the day was going... Thunder rushed inside the apartment and smelled every nook and cranny of it. He made sure he caught every single smell, however weak or strong, and he made sure he knew where he was. Then he rushed the food bowl and ate as fast as he could. As fast as he ate it...it came right back out. He puked all over our apartment, in three different spots. We thought to ourselves, what did we get ourselves into?!?! We didn't know then he isn't just a dog.
After making it through the first few hiccups of our first day home, Thunder soon became the best dog ever. His first few days home he explored all he could. After that we would each figure out what we could do and we could not. He would constantly want to eat human food and so he perfected the art of begging. With little effort he tilted his head just enough for you to know he was paying attention, his eyes would soon give you the most penetrating "I am so hungry" stare, and the last piece of the masterpiece was to lick his lips enough so as to convince me that he could almost taste the food he so longed for.
I soon learned about how he likes to think he needs to tell every dog who is not well behaved what to do, regardless of size! While in Austin, Texas we decided to try to go to the dog park...yet another Thunderventure, for him that is. He would get in a fight with the biggest dog in the park and here comes mom and dad to the rescue and ready with apologies...
Life then took us on a new adventure to Los Angeles, CA. Our apartment life was adjusted from lots of land and area for him to run to a corridor. We had to do something about that, and quick! I began bringing Thunder to the dog park in Venice Beach three times a week. We became regulars, as Thunder finally made some friends. Though he continued to be independent in his ways and some days went off and did his own thing the entire time we were at the park, he finally made some friends. Thunder became a popular dog and I finally got over my fear of large dogs. It was a win/win for us both. Before we knew it Thunder was the dog other dogs played with to make sure they were ready to come to the park. Don't get him wrong, all 23 pounds of him are pure strength, schnauzer stubbornness and kind of the castle attitude.
Thunder's favorite friend at the Venice Beach dog park was Pierre, a french bulldog that loved playing just as rough as Thunder did. They played and sometimes Thunder won and other times Pierre won. They challenged each other and at the end of the day they were the best of buds. This all changed when our adventures brought him to Westchester, New York.
Thunder was not a huge fan of dog parks in the Northeast. We tried different dog parks and different times of the day to go to the parks in Westchester, New York but nothing really worked, there was always one dog causing trouble and Thunder the mediator would step in. Before I knew it he was surrounded by dogs three times his side as he "mediates" the Thunder way. Barking as loud as he could at the other dog's blind spot, seemingly terrifying and dangerous, but in reality a scare tactic.
After we moved to Rhode Island and took our Thunderventures on the road once more, we tried finding another dog park but no luck. This did not keep Thunder down as his hunting skills had much practice in Rhode Island...As I stood by my door watching out for Thunder to return from his Thunderventures of hunting and potty time, he approached me with quick steps and a perk in his walk, he seemed glowing with excitement. I then asked myself "what is that in his mouth?", it was a quarter of a rabbits leg and thigh, it remains unknown where the rest of the rabbit went.
As our gardening expanded and our yield began to grow the more animals were attacked to the garden, and the more hunting Thunder got to practice. He stood tall and confident at the top of the hill. He watched over the entire garden making sure he was doing his job. One year he killed three rats, two birds, chased three huge dear out of the backyard and trapped a woodchuck. All on his own! That is his record, and he is pretty proud of his hunting and garden protection skills.
I never seized to look for friends for Thunder to play with, besides us, the furry kind of friends he would not try to hunt. Once we had a yard for Thunder to play with we gave it some thought, and what better way to secure a friendly playful fun day for Thunder than to adopt his sister? Nunu joined our family then and a different set of stories began.
