Winter Storm – Nor’easter ATHENA

As I woke up this morning, to 12 inches of snow on my deck, I was not at all surprised!  The first named Winter Storm – Nor’easter ATHENA, dumped a huge white blanket on the house after Superstorm Sandy cut our power for a week.  What’s next?  Like Gov. Christy asked, “Pestilence?”

I, however, knew the storm would come my way and dump all this snow, even though the weather people had forecasted it would go further north.  I own an ATHENA.  I know she has a mind of her own and will do what she wants!!  My ATHENA- Ch. Rumraisin Smoke on the Water is a quiet hellion.  Athena rules my home like her Aunt Kay did, with quiet authority.  You don’t even know you are being controlled until you have done what she wants and look back on how she got you there!!

When I heard the first ever named winter storm would be called Athena I knew all bets were off.  The storm’s namesake is unpredictable, funny, willful and lovingly dominant.  If the storm was to live up to its name we were in for, and ended up with, a doozie.  As I sat in my office yesterday, losing power for about 3 hours, I was the only one of my colleagues in the area not surprised by the weathermen’s tremendous mis-forecast.   The minute I heard they had decided to name the first winter storm ATHENA, I just sat back, smiled and braced myself.

ATHENA is unique in that she is owned by, truth be told-she owns-, two people.  She is my dog and rules the house.  My husband loves her, as she seamlessly took her Aunt Kay’s place in his heart as she travels upstairs with him each night as he removes the workday suit and gets into the evening comfy clothes.  She picked up that process, which none of my other dogs do, without a hitch and he appreciates that he did not go long without his former end of day buddy.  We lost Kay Scarpetta, the first of his buddies, a year ago November 6^th.  She was a presence in our home in a way no other dog has been since Raisin, the first of my Rumraisins.  Now ATHENA has stepped her paw into this position and done it with aplomb.

Alisa & Wilma - dear friends for 14 years, owners of Daisey and Diedre siblings Mackie and Redding, also own ATHENA.  They wanted a puppy and I was working so I ‘lent’ them ATHENA as a baby.  She stayed only a couple of months and then came back.  Then she went back to them for a couple of months and came back, and so on for the last 3 years.  She doesn’t miss a beat when she moves house to house.  It is normal for her.  She comes to expect a scenery change every few months.

At my house she takes care of my husband Jim, in Alisa & Wilma’s home she is Wilma’s constant companion.  Wilma is suffering from early onset dementia and it seems Athena knows this and keeps Wilma close and alert all day while she is in the Fearon/Hill household.  She is that little spark of life Wilma remembers flawlessly.  She has not forgotten the red dogs she has had in her life.  Wilma may think Athena is Redding, who passed several years ago at age 13, but no mind or matter.  It is her red dog and for them she gets up, engages and cares for their needs in a way she wouldn’t without their constant companionship and nudging.

As I sit here writing this blog about Winter Storm ATHENA, the Inaugural Winter Storm Name, I recognize of course…. no other name would have captured the spirit and independent life a nor’easter can have, nor would any other name have captured the life and love we so gratefully experience each and every day being owned by an Irish setter hellion named ATHENA!

Hugs my special baby girl.  See you soon! 

—Debra Vey Voda-Hamilton