So dogs and fireworks and the fourth of July. I think I am done with fourth of July. Although no one seems that worse for the wear this morning.

At work, I made a fun day for everyone, because who wants to practice normal things on a holiday of National Importance and freeing of Scooter Libby Independance. So we did speedy fast horse switching in which grownups were forced to swing up on the ponies and the pony kids and to somehow manage to climb up on the giant horses and canter them. Then the somewhat dangerous but exciting Watermelon Race, which involved running the horses very fast, sharp knives, shoving food down gullets, throwing things from horse back, swinging up onto horses quickly and leaping off them before they stopped. Thank god no one was injured.

We went to a bbq in Pleasure Point, which was very fun and I’m not just saying that because you are reading this Deb. We left the dogs locked in the house with the windows shut and stereo on, hoping for the best. I tried to walk them before we left but Ruby kept diving under cars, even though the bombs had just barely started. When it got dark, we all walked down to the war zone on the cliffs to enjoy loud sparkling bomb throwing in the air. It was cool for a little bit and also since it was so clear, you could see all the way across the bay where everyone else was setting off explosives on cliffs and beaches. But then it started to be more and more and louder and people running away when they were going amuck and we had a 3 year old with us.

So we went home to see how our dogs fared.

I guess it could have been worse. No one chewed through any walls, there was no blood anywhere, nothing eaten or destroyed. But all 3 of them were seriously freaked out and Ruby was only able to shove herself under furniture, try to come out, only to shove herself under a new piece of furniture. At least our street seemed clear, at least when we got home, but you could hear the warzone outside even over the stereo. Ruby hadn’t been out since work, but when I tried to take her out to pee quickly, of course it just made her worse and she just ran in and shoved herself back under the tv cabinet. Even Timmy and Otterpop were disturbed and freaked out. Next year, everyone gets tranquilizers. I think it’s come to that. The loud stereo likely helps but there are just too many bomb noises outside to make it work. The air smells like smoke, and that was thru the fog that had settled in on the Westside, even though Pleasure Point was still clear.

The dogs seemed a lot happier that I was home.

We also discovered at the bbq, that it is my presence that makes children wild. They are inherently calm and quiet, and when I show up, things spill and go crazy and everything gets sticky and loud and the toddler starts using a bat. I know my dogs are usually wild and nutty in my presence but I don’t know if they get nightmares. They do not spill things usually though but will jump on the table in the worst of times to get a piece of sausage. Other parents such as my sister have commented on this too and that things I tell the children give them nightmares. My sister was at first horrified by the charming monkey like mural I painted in my nephew’s room, but conditioned him that they were not the animals of Satan. I thought it was the perfect kids thing.

No one else decides to draw a demonically posessed coyote on the sidewalk for the children. This seemed like a fun thing for them but now I wonder if I should draw a rainbow gnome with a tutu instead? Um, or what else do they like? They seem to like stories about dirty old coyotes and the racoons with the shiney, beady eyes under bushes. So I am going to remember butterfies and puppies for next time and think soothing thoughts and see if this does not drive the children over the edge.