Chasing Storms

The adventures of a boy and his dog

By: Alana Holt

Staff Photographer

Storm-chasing duo Mike Mezull II and Joplin have made it through thick and thin and are an inseparable pair.

Alana Holt

To storm chasers, she's good luck. To the Instagram world, she's Joplin the Storm Chasing Dog. But to Mike Mezeul II, she's his kid and partner in crime who has adventured with him to 14 national parks, 10 states and two countries.

Mezeul is a photographer known for his stunning landscape, cityscape and night sky photography. He has been chasing storms for 18 years and Joplin joined him about three years ago. Joplin is seven-years-young and thought to be a Jack Russell/English Pointer mix. She's a medium-sized, white and brown pup who is wary around strangers, but once she's comfortable around people she will clean their face off. And ironically, she doesn't like men in hats though her dad can often be found wearing one.

Joplin is very much her father's daughter and can easily find herself getting distracted and doesn't stay in one place for long, unless she's entranced by belly rubs. And while Mezeul could spend all the money in the world on the best chew toy in existence, Joplin's favorite will always be the original chew toy — the stick.

Rough Start

Even after all the other toy's Mike has bought her, Joplin's favorite toy is still a stick.

Alana Holt

Mezeul adopted Joplin when she was six weeks old in 2012. He noticed she wasn't eating and one of the first places he took her after the adoption was Chic-fil-A, but she showed no interest in the chicken nuggets he offered. Later that night, he noticed she wasn't drinking, and she became ill, vomiting and suffering from diarrhea.

I've seen this before," Mezeul remembered thinking. "She's got Parvo."

He bounced around from vet to vet trying to find one that genuinely cared to help them and wouldn't conclude with, "Let's take her back and put her down."

Mike said, "Screw that, we're finding her a vet," and he managed to find a helpful veterinarian in Denton where Joplin stayed for two weeks. Even though she had to be quarantined because Parvo is highly contagious, Mezeul visited her every day.

When after five days she couldn't lift her head, he tried to prepare himself for the worst; but after 10 days she was well enough to come — though she'd contracted kennel cough for which she was treated and eventually recovered.

So, she went through a little bit of a rough time at the beginning, but now she's completely healthy," Mike said smiling down at Joplin, who lay near his feet outside a Starbucks.

What's in a name

The story of this storm-chasing duo is one of a boy and his dog and their interest and love of nature and storms.

Alana Holt

In 2011, Joplin, Mo. was hit by an EF-5 tornado with winds greater than 200 mph. The twister caused 158 fatalities and injured more than 1,000 people, according to the National Weather Service. After the storm, Mezeul volunteered to help the people of Joplin recover.

Joplin the Storm Chasing Dog didn't yet have a name while she was just a sick pup and during that time, Mezeul had hoped against hope that she'd somehow recover.

It was amazing seeing the people in Joplin, Mo. and how much hope they had after it was the deadliest tornado in news history," Mezeul said. "The amount of hope that people had to just rebuild was inspiring. So, we named her Joplin."

Storm Chasers

The story of this storm-chasing duo is one of a boy and his dog and their interest and love of nature and storms.

Alana Holt

The first time Mezeul decided to bring Joplin along on a storm chase he knew there was bad weather lurking in the Dallas area and he was too nervous to leave her home alone.

He considered, "What if I go chasing and a tornado hits my place? What's she going to do?" And so their days of chasing began.

On her first chase, Mezeul thought it would be the coolest thing to get a picture of Joplin with the storm. He became so focused on the storm that day, however, that he forgot to get a picture of her and decided to bring her out on the next chase.

What if I just took her out on every single one and tried to photograph her with different parts of the storm," he had wondered.

This led him to storyboarding Joplin with tornadoes and storms and writing out the potential shots in hopes of telling a story of her chasing tornadoes. It took him two years to do the series on her, which became The Dog Days of Chasing, and he intends to continue the series in the upcoming stormy seasons.

Around 2016, Joplin saw 13 tornadoes after every storm but three she chased turned into a tornado warning. To many of Mezeul's storm chasing buddies, she's good luck because, as they say, she "sniffs the tornadoes."

Joplin rides comfortably while her dad chases storms and she loves hail.

She's fearless. Absolutely fearless," he said of his furry storm chaser.

But every decision he makes while she's there is with her safety in mind because "she's my kid," he explained. She always rides with a seatbelt that attaches to her harness and sometimes wears boots on hikes to protect her paws from the elements.

Storm chasing usually takes up most of the day or becomes an overnight event and he brings the proper amount of food, water, doggy bags and boots for his kid. While he tries to bring her out for every storm chase, he does choose to leave her behind if the risk is too great.

Fur-vorite Memory

Joplin poses in front of an EF-3 tornado south of Dodge City, Ks.

Mike Mezeul II

Mezeul fondly recalled one trip they took together to Colorado in 2017. He'd converted the empty space in the back of his Subaru into a bed and they spent a freezing cold night there.

Joplin wore a jacket and they each had their own sleeping bag, but sometime during the night she'd made her way into his sleeping bag, pressing up against him keeping them warm despite it being less than 10 degrees outside that night.

Mezeul plans to continue his road trips and storm chasing with his kid and partner-in-crime because she has a lot more of the world to see, more faces to clean and more sticks to chew.

If you want to keep up with her adventures, you can follow her on Instagram @joplinthestormchasingdog or you can follow her dad @mikemezphoto. Additionally for more about the storm-chasing duo, visit mikemezphotography.com/blog/2018/6/14/the-dog-days-of chasing.

Twitter: @alana_holt