SAN ANGELO, TX — After the bloody, cataclysmic scene she found last year in her kitchen, Jerrica Escobedo stayed home with her dogs on the 4th of July.

Her fiancé suggested a river float trip and concert, which he guessed correctly she would find a lot of fun, and then checked himself.

"Oh, yeah, the dogs," he said to Escobedo, who recalled the conversation in an interview with Patch about the terror her dog must have gone through to chew open a refrigerator door in what she believes was a panicked attempt to escape the noise of fireworks.

The 4th of July is over, but dogs' terror from fireworks continues all summer as towns across the country include displays in their local festivals and celebrations. Consumer fireworks don't magically stop, either. Petitions to abolish fireworks in multiple states are plentiful on change.org and other sites.

Like many other U.S. states, Texas allows consumer fireworks sales at times of the year other than Independence Day, including Dec. 20-Jan. 1 for Christmas and New Year's commemorations. Some counties allow them for Texas Independence Day in March, San Jacinto Day in April and Cinco de Mayo in May

Last year on the Fourth, Escobedo, 33, thought she had made her San Angelo home safe and comfortable for Biggie Smalls, named after the late hip-hop artist. She turned the lights off and the television on. She made sure he and the other dogs got plenty of exercise before the noise started.

"And he still did what he did," she said.

Her kitchen looked like a crime scene. Blood from Biggie's cut-up mouth stained the inside of the refrigerator, and Biggie looked worse.

"His paws and gums were cut up, his face had scratch marks on his cheeks," Escobedo explained. "I get home, I don't see him. I turn the corner, and oh my God. 'Biggie! Biggie!' I started shouting. It doesn't register on him that it was me. He was dazed and confused. I'm petting him and hugging him and asking, 'Are you OK?'

"He just wasn't," he continued. "It took 10 minutes for him to finally respond. Oh my gosh, Biggie, what the hell did you do?"

The contents of the refrigerator were strewn across the floor, untouched, in Biggie's panic attack.

"Nothing was eaten or torn into," Escobedo said "There was a whole bunch of food he didn't get into. He wasn't hungry or being a bad dog. He was trying to find a way to hide from the noise."

Like a forensic investigator, Escobedo unraveled what must have happened.

"He knows it's a door that goes to somewhere," she said. "Other doors open by pushing them forward. He couldn't get in this one. We didn't know how reactive he was. He's never had a freak-out like this before."

This year, Escobedo got a prescription for trazodone from her vet and medicated Biggie a couple of days before the 4th of July to get him used to it.

"Even when he was medicated, Biggie was barking at the fireworks. I was even scared this year," she said, remarking on the loud booms.

Tranquilizing Biggie was the last thing Esobedo wanted to do, but she couldn't bear a repeat of last year.

"I hate doing that," she said. "He's usually excited, but when he's on that, he's just lazy and asleep half the time."

But she'll get the pills again when New Year's Eve rolls around. Her job, one of them anyway, is to keep her dogs healthy and happy.

Escobedo, who has been rescuing dogs for nine years, works as a licensed military life counselor at Goodfellow Air Force Base in San Angelo, combining the best of two worlds.

"I feel like it was something I was meant to do," she said. "It's dogs and people for me."

Her ultimate goal is to become certified as a play therapist for kids and use Chanel, a 2-year-old miniature Schnauzer, as a therapy dog.

Each of Escobedo's four rescue dogs have overcome issues, but Chanel is a special one.

Found in a ditch and unable to walk, she was either born that way and abandoned by a breeder, or hit by a car. Chanel got around in a little wheelchair until she developed the strength in therapy to move under her own power.

"They get treated better than half the world," Escobedo said of her four rescue dogs.

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