Dogs and Firecrackers

I may have forgotten to tell you about the firecrackers. And, more about dogs.

A weekend has gone by and I spent most of my time in my room reading and studying and writing out words and sentences and prefixes and suffixes and listening to music.

And listening to dogs and firecrackers.

Here is how it works.

There are two classes of dog visible from my 10 storey window. Class One are the domestic dogs, those that are tied up to the side of a building, and who apparently belong to the people who live in the building to which they are tied. Class Two are the feral dogs, those who travel with impunity in packs of five or six and who seem to have a pecking order that I haven't figured out, yet.

During the daylight hours, the domestic dogs are quiet, until a pack of wild dogs follows a series of trails that wend through the backyards that I can see from my window. As the wild dogs pass through the yards, they initiate barking from the dogs tied up in each yard, until the whole neighbourhood is thronging with dogs barking and the crows lift as one, like shook coal dust.

Now, switch to people. Every evening starting as soon as it gets dark, about 4:45 pm at this time of year, the firecrackers and fireworks start going off. I don't know the names of the various firecracker options, but later today when I go to the Megacity Mall across the way, I will look at the long rows of firecrackers available on one aisle of the store and see if I can translate some of the words.

But as soon as it gets dark, the noise and light show starts, and as soon as the noise and light show starts, the domestic dogs start yelping and barking. They are, I assume, scared of the noise, not being able to investigate the source for themselves. So, lunging forward and pulling their ropes taut, they press forward looking for where the noise is coming from. And barking and barking and barking and barking until the firecrackers stop for a while. At that point the domestic dogs settle down, and the feral dogs take over. Barking and barking and barking. And when they start barking, the domestic dogs start barking again. Bark bark bark bark.

This interaction continued from 4:45 until 11:20, at which time I heard a police siren in the neighbourhood, and all went quiet.

There were times, on Sunday, when I thought that I was going to go insane. I can't stay here, I thought, I can't stay here and listen to dogs and firecrackers for another four weeks. But then I thought, well, yes, I can. And took out my camera and decided to make a study of the dogs. And I started to laugh to myself. And it is, you know, actually quite funny.