We used to sit on our enclosed porch and watch the thunder storms roll around our town in the valley and the lightening would dance off the buildings, trucks and log piles in the mill yard just down the street. It was a good educational trick we used on the girls when they were young. Thunder, lightening, etc...God bowling didn't work anymore at their ages. So one day we're all on the porch, hubby, me, two girls, two cats and one afghan hound named Blue. It was a great storm, lots of lightening and big boomers....Girls were digging it UNTIL......big streak of lightening hit the oil tank filler pipe on the house next door to us. Considering all the windows were open in the porch and the house is less than 20 feet from the end of the porch, needless to say it was quite the bang. Kids screamed, smelled the sulphur, saw the sparks, cat left marks on my legs that now are scarred and that big dog just disappeared. Found the dog in her kennel, wouldn't come out for hours, cats - only God knew where they each went cause they didn't come out even to eat for a day......kids, refused to sit on porch during thunder storms for years afterwards (until the oldest had kids of her own and now tries to "watch the storms" from her own front porch). Oh yeah, hubby checked out the house next door to make sure that the oil tank didn't explode....
I so understand the paranoia of loud noises and animals.
Anyway it's an excuse to terrorize animals large and small with fireworks.
