A natural disaster versus my dog: I chose my dog
When a Chicago tornado made me fully understand dog lovers
Chicago has had 13 tornadoes since 1855, with a death total of 13 people. One of the major ones in Illinois was on August 28, 1990. It lead to 29 deaths and 353 injuries, but none of those injuries were in Chicago’s city limits. My guess is that must’ve also been around the time that I got into a big blowout with day camp leaders regarding my dog.
Every summer in my elementary school years (from ages 7 to 12), my mother sent me to day camp. Personally, I would’ve been just fine hanging out at home, chatting on the phone with my Girl Scout friends, playing with my dog Shep (a German Shepherd/Labrador Retriever crossbreed), and reading “The Babysitter’s Club” or “Ramona” books. However, my mother was adamant about me doing something active and productive.
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One summer day in particular there was a lot of hoopla about a tornado watch. If you live in Chicago, you hear these weather warning announcements enough that you start tuning them out. I went to day camp per usual, complained about the boring sandwiches and snacks, and enjoyed hanging out with my day camp friends. I especially loved the days when we walked over to a bigger camp to go swimming — that is, after I stopped trying to impress one boy in particular who almost watched me drown. (That’s more of a “We Need to Talk” post though.)
I explained that my dog, Shep, was outside in the backyard. And if this tornado was as bad as they said it was, he’d have nowhere to go but under the lowest step of our back porch steps — his favorite place to hang out away from the sun.
But on this particular day, I recall the swimming pools were closed and we stayed inside. That’s odd, considering our day camp leaders were always taking turns creating games for us to participate in outside. On this day though, day camp leaders stood off to the side more than usual. I didn’t pay attention at first. That is, until I saw a couple of police officers (or maybe firemen?) come inside of our facility. And then adults started using equipment to tie our exit doors closed on all sides of the gymnasium.