Rain, rain, rain….

Has anyone seen Noah lately? I’m thinking that he is going to appear at our door any day now and say, “Grab the animals–it’s time to get on the ark!”

I just ran outside to take a picture. Can anyone tell me why Tucker is standing in the middle of puddle, over fetlock deep, instead of heading for higher ground?!

My rain gauge was at 5 inches yesterday morning. It has rained buckets since then, and even now, on Thursday morning, the sky is dark, rain is falling, and the Doppler pattern on the local news channel’s internet page doesn’t look promising for the rest of the day. We’ve gotten another 3 inches in the rain gauge since last night!

Which means it’s a “Cat in the Hat” day for the two dogs, who have to stay inside and who are looking exceedingly glum.

And the barn cats are Not Happy. They parade up to the house every morning and plant themselves in my Hostas to stare at the door, as if magical thinking will make me appear faster. Once I appear, they happily wind around my legs to see which one can send me to the hospital instead of down to the barn to feed them–which could only make sense to a cat, but there you are.

But today–they were a bedraggled, damp, flat-eared lot, their soft little mitten feet muddy, their fluffy, upraised tails sodden. And from their narrow-eyed glares, they seemed to hold me personally responsible for the weather.

We all squished across the lawn together, six wet cats winding around my ankles, me slipping and sliding across that waterlogged green sponge…and then across the slick-as-silcone sloppy mud in the barnyard. Luckily, I didn’t fall and flatten a cat, but it was close.

But ahhhh, the barn. The lovely sound of rain spattering on the roof. The cozy smell of new hay, and cedar shavings, leather and horse. Is there a better constellation of scents anywhere? When I was young, nothing was more perfect on a rainy day than to go out into the barn with a stack of Black Stallion books, and stretch out on the back of a horse in a box stall, or to go up and sit on the hay to read. So this dreary day brought back golden memories.

How about you–are you part of this crazy, heavy rain pattern as well? And what are your best memories of rainy days?