A boom, a bark and a whimper. . .

The other day, while we were sans guests and enjoying a quiet afternoon, someone from across the road thought it would be fun to light off a bunch of fire crackers.

No big deal, it's just some noise--for us. For Bejuca and Mini-B, however, it's an entirely different story.

The noise drives Bejuca nuts. She jumps and prances around, barking and growling. Not a bad thing, as folks can hear the big bark and with the "Perro Bravo" (vicious dog) sign on our gate, it's a good combination. We don't let her get too far out of control, though.

Mini-B has a different reaction. She started shaking and trembling (remember the old vibrating beds from the motels back in the day?) and didn't want anything to do with anything. She even came running up to me and sought comfort.

As the three of you know who read the blog, I can wrap myself in bacon and Mini-B will shun me for Lucy 99.9 percent of the time. Apparently, fireworks are her Kryptonite to come to me.

The noise even put Mini-B off of her feed for an hour, which is a pretty big deal, considering she will hoover up anything (including mosquitoes, discarded fruit, lizards, etc.) that she can find or run down. She was just too shaken up to eat.

After an hour (in which she buried herself under a load of blankets and pillows) and no more boom-boom, she let me carry her outside, where she scarfed down her food.

At New Year's, it can get pretty noisy (not as bad as Hawaii) so hopefully there will be a break until then.