Heart of a Lion

I hate to try to imitate Will Rogers, always talking about politics and the weather, but as I keyboard this story, yet another rainstorm has passed the house. I’m not keeping score, but this is the rainiest August that I have experienced in central Oklahoma.

My backyard cants toward my back door. When it rains, water runs on to my porch. I have a drain, but when the drain is falling exceptionally hard, I have to operate a broom to prevent water from flooding into my living room as it did during the “Great Flood” of 2007.

I recently saw a lightning strike map of the United States and noticed that central Oklahoma has about as many air-to-ground strikes as any place in the Country. Tonight, I can attest to the number of lightning strikes that occurred near my house.

My two pugs, Princess and Scooter live on the back porch. Princess doesn’t like noisy storms but little Scooter is a warrior. Nothing scares him and he stood close to me, defiantly barking at the thunder as I used the broom to combat falling water. Nothing much scares me either, but a nearby lightning strike caused me to yell, and scare both dogs, reminding me of my time in a Vietnamese free-fire zone, so many years ago.

This is the rainiest Oklahoma August that I can ever remember, but it finally abated tonight, moving east as it always does. Smiling before I returned to my computer, I petted Princess and Scooter, still marveling at my tiny dog with the heart of a lion.

Louisiana Mystery Writer