It isn't just by chance that the horrific storms in Oklahoma happened at the time of day they did. The afternoon sun and surface heating are the cook-top stove for these things. What I find most disturbing and sad is the coming of night, making personal searches for victims and belongings nearly impossible. The dogs are brought in as their noses can see where our eyes can't.
The sense of smell possessed by animals is really a wondrous thing; not only for the practical use in Oklahoma but in their observation of detail. We humans work on the big picture smells; our dogs and cats smell in minutia.
Six months ago there was ample snow...replaced now by the smells of first cut grass, some flowers that make a nose run and, in a few pending days, ample rain and leaves.Have you noticed that winter doesn't really smell like anything and that spring and fall smell so much? Such a difference between now and and those early days of the year- or earlier this spring for that matter. We are right on the water - ocean - bay and there was the barest hint of the water going back to winter clear the other day...we could smell the salt....bits, wisps of scents... and in the evening....night perhaps....perfumes...
Sometimes we envy our pets their sense of smell. Not last night and not today. They are smelling us out, dead or alive and the distinction is, perhaps to them, not a difference. The concept of human death and misery are probably not on their radar as their acute sense has taken over.
The "madelines and tea" of Proust, the kitchen on Thanksgiving morning, the woods after a rain - so many things that are big and obvious but our pets; well they smell in nuance and remember in detail. I hope they aren't cursed to remember saddness.