Solar Pup in Fall

I've mentioned before that Lilah is solar powered, and so in a continuation of that thought: I think Lilah suffers from SAD or seasonal affective disorder.

As fall arrives and blankets the world in a layer of dead leaves in hues of orange, red and yellow, the sun all of a sudden gets lazy and doesn't shine nearly as bright or as long as it did during those wonderful days of summer. And this really messes up some people. Or dogs, like Lilah.

This is what Lilah does during a typical sunny morning:
Praying at the altar of the sun.

Then she's all charged for a full day of playing and naughtiness.

However when it's the slightest bit overcast (and not raining like last week's premature winter weather), she just lies around and sleeps. Like full on sleeping so deeply that i can put my face in her face and she won't even open her eyes. So lethargic. Almost like she's a poster dog for one of those Cymbalta commercials (really just the first 20 seconds).


I admit it's kind of nice, that peace. Except it's eerie and unfamiliar. Every time she does that, sleeps a lot, I start to worry that she's ill internally or seriously depressed or something. How sad that a quiet and resting dog is something so rare to me that I worry she's suffering from something.

First Day of Full Rain

I'm sitting here in the breakfast room where the doors open up to the backyard, listening to the rain fall. And Lilah is driving. me. CRAZY!

She keeps scratching at the door and barking to go out. I figure she needs to do her business outside. I put on my boots and grab my umbrella. We go out together into the first real rain storm fall in Los Angeles. She wanders to the garage, smells the huge puddles of water pooling on the dirt lawn, lies down on damp weeds near the potted herbs. She does all that and more. But does not pee or poop.

Because Ritter doesn't need to do anything outside and is happy staying inside and dry, but more importantly where the food is, he remains in the house with my mom. Both of them warm, dry and cozy together. But Lilah is an includer. She wants everyone to join her in everything she does. So what does she do? Slams the door open and runs inside with wet fur and muddy feet to free Ritter and invite everyone outside with her.

Frustrated with her, we go back inside. And as soon as I sit back down, she's back at the door, barking and scratching.

And she did this several times over the past couple hours.

ARGH! Hold on, she's scratching and barking again.

. . . . .

Finally! Now I don't have to worry anymore if her barking means she NEEDS to go out. Finally, peace! She's actually quiet and napping in the hallway.

I think partially what fueled Lilah's crazy was the overwhelming rain. Being a SoCal dog, she doesn't see constant rain often. So the concept of falling water droplets was just so novel, she had to romp around in the rain like a five year old boy.

I seriously hope that the novelty for her fades. How do other people handle house dogs needing to go out in the rain?!