Cats and Thunderstorms

As we are experiencing our first thunderstorm of the season (Mineeeesohhhtah here) I have been watching my cats and how they respond and was wondering how your cats react to storms? My Wallace absolutely loves watching a good storm. I open the windows and he has his face right there. The loudest crack of thunder doesn't faze him. Lewis, who has never experience one, as he's only 7 months is totally enthralled. He has been watching with his face in the window since it started, window open and all. Poor Marcellus, is still afraid of thunderstorms. All it takes is one thunderboom and he slinks away in fear and runs to his hiding place under the bed...poor kitty. He's always done this. Corky the dog loves storms too. It's a good sniffing party for him. It was a perfectly good spring storm today, raining but not pouring and just the right amount of thunder and lightening....with the exception or poor Marcellus. It's almost over and he is still hiding.

George hates storms. Poor guy. He always runs to the top stair of the basement. I usually go sit with him because I'm scared,too ! He just shakes. Even if I wasn't scared, I would need to be there for him. We will see, Indiana is supposed to get some this evening.

My kits never paid that much attention to storms until they rode out a tornado in our mobile home a couple of years ago. Now when it starts thundering and lightning, the ones who were there then tend to panic. The younger ones don't pay it any mind!

Most of my kitties are ok with storms. Chuckie is kind of jumpy with the first few stroms of the season but he's ok after that .Milo on the other hand is terified! All he has to do is hear the rain falling and he's under the bed until it's well over!

We had some major rumblers roll through Sunday night. It was shaking the bed & it rained so hard and so much, my basement flooded.

Well my cats, all of them, sleep on me. So the rumblers come thundering through, shaking me awake... and Hammie, Snickers & Dusty all JUMP UP and stand at attention; backs straight up and ears pointed. They were very vigilant and seemed scared about the house shaking!

The boomers continued but my other three cats just kept right on snoring. My cats didn't leave me to go run into a corner or anything; they just 'stood there' on the bed, protecting momma from the rumblers.

Thunderstorms or really windy days don't bother my kitties one bit. I would've thought that they would bother Daisy because she's a little skittish with loud noises, but it doesn't. I'm so jealous, we haven't had any good storms at all yet.

A friend called the other day from Colorado to tell me her cats totally freaked by a rare thunderstorm that hit that day. I had to laugh since 2 of her cats are orphaned cats I raised. They survived a tornado that passed my house a few days after I brought them home. That was a LOUD storm.

We have so many storms here that mine are mostly oblivious. The night that the tornado passed overhead, lightning struck the flag pole in front of our house and bent it. That was the only time that I saw our cats run for cover in a storm.

Someone needs to tell George - It's getting closer. I will be up all night at this rate waiting for it. Oh I hate them.

My kids don't mind storms a bit. They are lords of their domain no matter what is happening. My Inca gets a little annoyed as I won't let him out in the rain. Not that he would go he hates getting wet but he doesn't get his way so he turns his tail up at me like it is my fault he can't sit on the front step.

Tricia

George, sweetie? Just take a deep breath and cuddle next to daddy. I'd say cuddle with mommy, but she is probably just as nervous as you right now.

Jasper seems to be oblivious. The thunder may wake him, but as long as I'm calm, he is.

Gordo and Pitufo hate lightning, Princess is my brave little girl. She loves being next to the window. I hate when she does that, because I have to get close to the window to grab her. I don't have a basement, but I have a room without windows so we usually go there. The lightning here in Miami is pretty strong. I've seen lightning hit my front yard, and my neighbor's back yard. The one that hit my front yard caught fire, that was creepy. I've been scare of lightning ever since.

Milky is another terrified of them as well. He's under my bed or pillow when he see a flash of the lighthing!

Tucker runs & hides, Mini isn't as bad, but I won't pick either of them up during a storm-next thing you know,CRASH & my stomach would be clawed open.
During our hurricanes, they were pretty relaxed, though.

Ophelia, the skittish one, could care less about thunderstorms. Trent doesn't seem to mind the thunder much, but he really does not like wind.

My dog Boomer does not like Thunder. He tries to chase it away by barking and running after it. Well we had a Tornado warning and some really heavy thunder and lighting storm mixed with hail today around 330 pm. Boomer was looking out the window barking and whining to get out and Chynna was looking out also to see what all the fuss was about
Boomer was having a fit and tired hisself out and was laying on the couch and Chynna come up to him and nosed him and then lay down with him as if to say Hey its okay I'm here with you. and to not be scared.

Course that didn't last long as the sound of thunder was to much and he took off again. Boomer aka Thunder alarm to the job again.

Chynna my sweet kitty taking care of Boomer seems to be her new job

Originally Posted by captiva

George hates storms. Poor guy. He always runs to the top stair of the basement. I usually go sit with him because I'm scared,too !

He just shakes. Even if I wasn't scared, I would need to be there for him. We will see, Indiana is supposed to get some this evening.

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What part of Indiana? I'm in Central (just south of Indianapolis) and had a thunderstorm here, lightning lighting up the sky like daylight! It was beautiful to watch. Since it was such a mild night, I had the window open. I saw the lightning and kept the window open as it wasn't raining. Archimedes was sitting in the windowsill watching the lightning and enjoying the wind. Then a huge boom of thunder and the cat is like in awe...until the rain came down! He jumped away from the window and moved into the kitchen.

angel runs & hides when it storms

My cats really dont mind at all, but we have a puppy, a big puppy that goes crazy. I feel really bad for him, he is an outside dog and the last time a thunderstorm happened he ate through the screen trying to get in the house! We bring him on the cat porch when its bad weather now. I was thinking maybe there was something to give to him to calm him down. Seems like any loud noise upsets him. The lawnmower, etc. He's only about 6 months old so hopefully he will get better about this when he is bigger. Thunderstorms here in Ga. are just about an everyday thing in the spring.

Ebony experienced her first storm just this week. It was interesting to see her reaction. She did not hide, but she did follow Brendan and I around with big inquisitive eyes meowing up a storm. I think she wasn't sure quite what to think.

Lilly on the other hand is our under bed kitty. Lilly still hides under the bed most of the time when it is not storming, but last week she was making such good progress and was actually coming out for extended periods of time. When I found her under the bed during a storm last week I was a little surprised, but then put it together that the loud noises must be scaring her. So I am guessing storms are not for her.