Rastus did not enjoy Christmas day this year.
 We drove the two hours home to my Mum's for lunch and then came back to the outskirts of Melb. for dinner at Wayne's sisters. She lives not far from Lisa so we watched the storm come across from their balcony and saw the mini tornado start to form.  The power went out so we were running around finding candles before it got dark when I started hearing funny banging noises. They weren't very frequent and I thought it was Wayne's brother in law out on the balcony. But then Wayne said "that was a fist sized hail stone that just hit the driveway". And he was right, they were huge, some even almost tennis ball size. Luckily everyone's car except our dump of a dog car was under cover. We ran out and put towels on the windscreen hoping we wouldn't get knocked unconscious by the hail and made it back inside as the golf ball sized hail storm hit.  The car is pretty much unscathed. We stood by with towels as the spouting around the roof turned into water falls but luckily their house is built up about 3 inches and the water just lapped at the edges. We had to wait for the storms to pass before it was safe to drive. So we didn't get home till 10pm. We'd left the back door ajar for the dogs as we'd been gone all day but wanted them to be inside if the storms came. OMG!!! Rastus HATES thunder. He had completely ripped the baby gate out of the door way and then when he found the door behind it closed he had obviously panicked further and jumped our six foot high fence. He is a dog who is too scared to even jump his front feet up on the baby gate. We spent the next hour or so driving round our suburb calling him to no avail. Wayne was sure he'd made it to a main road and been hit as no one had called me and he has a tag with his name and my mobile number on it on his collar. I was hoping he'd gone to ground in someone's backyard and as the weather was atrocious no one would be out to find him. We were up at 5 again this morning and driving around calling him again. I went home to have a hot shower when my mobile rang at 7am and some people who live three blocks away called to say they'd found him all wet and dirty in their backyard. It looks like he's been hiding under someones car or caravan he has black grease and mud on the top of him. Apart from a few scrapes and a stiff back and hind legs he seems ok. We'd driven past their house calling him twice last night but he either couldn't hear us, wasn't there or he was too scared to come out. There have been a number of people setting off illegal fireworks around our neighbourhood  and he's scared of those too so he may have just been too darned scared to come out.He's bombed out on his dog bed fast asleep now. He probably got less sleep than we did. I'm going to have to think about sedating him when they forecast thunder storms, he's getting worse each time we have a bad one. Well I hope everyone else had a more peaceful Christmas than we did. Enjoy the rest of the festivities.  Rastus will celebrate when he's recovered from his shock and caught up on some sleep.PS I hope I never spend another hour driving around looking for my dog in vain. It was awful. Make sure your dogs are microchiped. I'm so glad Tiggy stayed put (she's not fussed by thunder) But she doesn't wear a collar inside and so had no tag on with our contact details. She is chipped but we'd have had to wait till the vet's or local councils or shelters opened so they could get out contact details. |
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| What a scare for all of you. I am glad he is home and OK for the most part. Hope tomorrow is a nicer day for all.  |
| So glad everything came out okay and that Rastus is home! Cindy |
Poor Rastus  I'm so glad he made it home saFe and relatively sound! Quite the weather you guys got! |
| What a terrible experience!! Poor Rastus! After that he will be even more afraid of storms. Glad life has returned to normal......mostly. |
| How Scary!!!! I'm so glad everyone is okay!! |
| Oh my--that must have been a terrible several hours for you! So glad Rastus is home. Give him extra hugs! |
| Poor Rastus, he deserves some special coddling today. And you too, good advice about the chipping. I'm sorry you had to go through that scare, especially on Christmas! |
| Well. that's a different kind of Christmas, for sure Did you guys have any kind of warning??? Kristine |
| OMG! I would have been beside myself looking for him out in that weather! Thank goodness you found hime safe....Have you ever tried the Thunder Shirt or those anxiety wraps for thunderstorms? I think I would rather have him sedated than run the risk of losing him outside again...either that, or crate him during a storm in a quiet room with the crate coveed on three sides? |
| Omg! I'm so glad that he was found. Sorry you had to go through that on xmas. |
| I am so sorry for both you and Rastus...poor boy. Thank God you were able to find him...the angels that called you. What a mess. I think this calls for a couple of glasses of wine to relax and be grateful to all be home safe. What a nightmare. |
| Poor little guy, being so scared, I am so happy he is home. Terrible way for all of you to spend Christmas, glad everyone is safe. |
| Poor baby Rastus!!!! You all must have been so scared Glad to hear he is back home safe and sound! |
| My heart just dropped as i was reading your post....i can just imagine how frantic you were.... Im glad he's home, safe and sound..... |
| Seriously guys, check your roofs. When we had grapefruit size hail in Ft. Collins, 95% of the roofs in town were replaced. Broken shingles are not something to be overlooked. |
Mad Dog wrote: Well. that's a different kind of Christmas, for sure Did you guys have any kind of warning???Kristine Well they had forecast thunderstorms. But we've been having them on and off for the past week and a half and they've just been your usual garden variety thunder, lightning and brief heavy rain. So we figured we'd get more of the same. But NO, it turned out to be a biggie. I'm hoping that's it, all the thunder storming used up for this summer. Melbourne doesn't usually get bad thunderstorms so it was quite a surprise. |
| oh poor baby, Summer sends kisses to Rastus. Summer thinks she is hard done by as she has spent 3 hours shut in our bedroom but at least she was safe...xxx |
| I am so glad that Rastus is ok, and that you find him I know is scary have a missing child. Poor baby !! give him a kiss from all of us |
| There's usually not a lot of time to plan for that type of weather. And so many times here they say we might have bad weather but it doesn't happen. We get so we expect it to be not so bad. Poor Rastus. It's sad that he made you worry so by not coming to you but I'm so glad he sought cover in the neighbor's yard so he was safe... good boy. I can only imagine all the scenarios that went through your head though. Darn but it's hard because we can't reason with them or reassure them that thunder sounds are ok. It's going to be harder now that he's connected the sounds/sights with this experience. And what the heck is it with people and big noises on Christmas Eve? Sheesh! We had someone nearby shooting off guns. I'm relieved everyone is ok and I'm sorry that this was so scary. |
| How scary!!! Give Rastus extra hugs from us! |
So happy he's safe!  |
| Poor Rastus. To be scared of thunder and then try to get away and get lost. Poor you and dh, I can't even imagine how scared you were. I'm so glad that you were able to find him and get him home and everyone is now safe. |
We have decided not to go anywhere for New Year's Eve. It's not worth the worry what will happen when the fireworks start.  |
| Wow how frightening!! Poor Rastus, big cuddles You guys must have been frantic, I would have a complete freakin meltdown if I lost Ru & knew he was somewhere scared. I'm so glad everything is fine now |
| Hey Rastus, glad your home safe and secure |
| oh..MIM...what a terrible ordeal for all of you! I am so glad you finally found him,but I know you were going crazy wondering where he was.... Huggs to Rastus and Tiggy from all of us!!! ( We have decided to stay home on New Years Eve for the same reason. I am going to put Hearts Thundershirt on her ~~it seems to work on settling her down a bit) |
| to Rastus and you guys! My worst nightmare is my dog getting loose. Glad for the happy ending and I hope he wasn't too traumatized. |
| ^^^ Thanks he seems fine. There's a post in pictures of his detraumatising technique. |
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