I Love the Smell of Petrichor in the Morning!

Pacific hurricane season officially begins on May 15. While we might have a few false alarms early in the season, hurricanes that devolve into very mild tropical storms or hurricanes that shoot off west well before hitting Cabo, most hurricane activity is clustered around August through October.

I arrived in Todos Santos in April 2015. I found a cute house to rent at the top of the hill, spitting distance from El Mirador and the beach. I was settling in nicely. I had adopted Pequeña so Luna had a sweet wee companion. Pequeña’s remaining siblings, Loquita and Brutus would come over for playdates, and maybe a bit of food and water, every day – sometimes twice. On this day in 2015, Hurricane Blanca formed. She grew in strength over the next 10 days before hitting Cabo and Baja California Sur. I was today years old when I learned that Blanca was the earliest recorded tropical cyclone make landfall in BCS, ever. I had never experienced a hurricane and I was pretty out-to-lunch until the rental agency sent a maintenance man to “batten down the hatches” and I noticed all my neighbors doing the same. There was a tension in the air. Hurricane Odile had battered the area the previous September, and there was still a lot of damaged walls, buildings, roads, and houses. Of course, people were freaked out!

Contemporaneous Post from 2015
Hurricane Blanca. Wow, people take this hurricane business very seriously around here. I’m seeing both boarded up and taped up windows. The latest from NOAA is that the wind has dropped from 140 to 120 mph, and they expect it to drop more before it reaches Baja. If all goes well, Blanca will skirt just to the west of land, bringing lots of rain (6-10″ over the next five days) and wind. I’ve got everything put away, I have water and food, and I’m expecting something like the Snowmageddon that they always predict for the Bay Area, or at least hoping it is akin to most Bay Area Snowmageddons!

As a San Francisco girl, I’m used to earthquakes, they strike without warning, generally cause little or no damage, are over within minutes, and beyond always being prepared, there is no way to prepare. Hurricanes are a beast of a different ferocity, as I learned that May/June. I discovered the NOAA Hurricane site and obsessively tracked the path of Blanca. I had no idea what to expect. I didn’t even know hurricane season had begun two weeks before! With each passing day I was becoming more anxious and freaked out.

The morning of the storm Luna, Pequeña, and I went on a little village walk-about. Everything about the day was dramatic. The clouds were dark and ominous and rose up in incredible formations; the wind was picking up gradually; the angry ocean was kicking up a fuss and I could hear the waves crashing from my home a mile away. Our first stop was El Mirador. It was all battened down so we were able to wander the property, poking into every nook, cranny, and refrigerator. All of a sudden, out popped a tiny little puppy, probably six weeks old, lost and completely alone. You know me by now, I could not leave her. So she joined the three of us on our wander, Pequeña “cock-blocking” her at every turn, she had won the lottery and she did not want to share me. By the time we hit El Centro, the wee baby was tuckered out so I plopped her in my bag and she rode home strapped to my chest.

The hurricane truly was brutal. By dinner the wind had picked up and was blowing dust under my door. Then the rains arrived, blowing under my door and turning the dust to mud. By the time night had settled in, so had the storm. I began hearing puppy whimpers. My pinche neighbors had tied Loquita and Brutus, who were just about 10 weeks old, to a bush outside their house and left them to weather the hurricane alone. Try as I may, the wind was blowing so hard I could not open the screen door to gather them up and bring them in. There was no back door and the windows were barred, so I was powerless. The night terrified all four of us. The pups were pissing and shitting everywhere, spiders and cockroaches were sneaking in to shelter from the storm, and finally the power and internet went out so I was alone with three scared pups and my bottle of emergency rum. At that moment I decided that I prefer earthquakes to hurricanes.

The following weekend I took puppy Blanca to the dog surf competition at Cerritos Beach and within 15 minutes she had a new family. It is hard to ignore two adorable puppies and a grouchy old Luna. A week after that I saved Loquita from certain death and she became a forever MoonDawg. I only wish I had taken her along with Pequeña when they offered, thus saving her a traumatic, life or death three-day visit with my vet, Dr. David Martinez. As is the way down here, Brutus was gone when I returned the following year. I don’t know his fate but I have a good idea. I’ve since learned that I can’t save every pup, but it looks like I will die trying.

Flash forward ten years. Early hurricane Alvin was blowing up a fuss, heading straight for BCS, and potentially bringing some rain. I awoke to a gentle rain and the smell of petrichor – my favorite way to greet the day. So, I did what I had done the first time, I rounded up five pups including baby Apollo and headed out to enjoy a bit of rain and dramatic cloud formations. I was excited to find a new route that connected up with my old favorite hike, the El Mirador hike. It was a gorgeous day, the pups were all well-behaved, and the new road was cut next to a saturated arroyo so it was beautiful and green. It was also full of mosquitos – but that is what OFF! is for!

Happy MoonDawgs!