Several months ago, I was chatting about the weather with a local farmer who unknowingly put a curse on all of us by mentioning, “We need more rain!”

I have been tempted to call and ask him to try some other chant that could possibly turn off what he undoubtedly turned on. Something along the lines of  “April, May, and June showers bring July flash floods!”

These kind of things can really get out of hand. I will never forget a photo we ran many years ago that showed several firemen rowing a boat down the main street in La Farge right next to the top of a tall gas station sign!

Several weeks ago we had a giant tree taken down because its roots were uprooting, so to speak, a large section of our cement walk in the backyard.

The last branch had hardly hit the ground when Mother Nature must have yelled, “Cue the rainmaker!” It hasn’t stopped for more than a few days at a time ever since. The S and S Cement crew is still waiting for the brand new “wading pool” that replaced the tree trunk area to dry up.

However, the best way to handle something like this is to spend a little time considering the situation if a tornado had showed up instead of the rain clouds!

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In a related thought, thanks to our dog, Socks, we have found out that some of those far-out television commercials have much more truth to them than most believe.

She has been frightened by loud noises, such as gunshots, motorcycles, backfires, and mostly thunder, all her life. She became absolutely terrified by them.

The little Cairn Terrier mix (think of Toto in the Wizard of Oz) had suffered with this problem forever, although she is a truly delightful and loving member of our family.

Then we saw an ad for the Thunder Jacket on TV. Like most ad skeptics, we questioned whether  simply wrapping a tight sweater around a scared dog would calm it down. Guess what? It does in spades, at least for our dog.

Her worst fear is thunder, and when it gets loud enough she comes to our bedroom door and cries. That always gets me up to turn on a loud distraction like the TV and sit up with her until she becomes calm enough to fall asleep.

Well, much to our amazement the Thunder Jacket has put that exercise to rest. Once she gets that magical garb wrapped tightly around her, she accepts the comfortable, safe feeling it offers.  Bless whoever discovered it!

In addition to that unsolicited testimony, Jane recently thought about using it with Socks on our auto trip home from a visit with our youngest daughter and her husband in the Twin Cities. It worked just fine and calmed her down, although she has a history of being rather nervous in a car.

We can’t explain it and neither can Socks, but there must be some value to the feeling of safety offered by the close and tight feeling of the jacket wrapped around her.

It might not work with all dogs, but it sure was worth a try for us....and for Socks who has found a newly developed sense of courage, and a happier life.