It’s morning at MacDuff’s. Yes, we made it, finally. I’m having my coffee on the patio of the bungalow we’re staying in, while Little Miss Magic (as I affectionately call my 3-year-old daughter) plays with her bucket and shovels on the beach. The others are still sleeping.


Thanks to Captain Paul and his Piper Aztec 6-seater, we out-maneuvered several threatening squall lines, ducked under a few angry-looking rain clouds, and generally negotiated with Mother Nature for the 20-minute flight from Nassau to Norman’s.


However, the white knuckles and weather anxiety of the past few days seem like a nearly-forgotten nightmare right now, as I listen to the unbroken melody of ocean waves gently crashing onto the beach, and watch a sailboat make its way along the blue horizon.


Again, in the words of Jimmy Buffett:


And if it doesn’t work out,
There’ll never be any doubt,

That the pleasure was worth all the pain (from The Weather Is Here)


Little Miss Magic began making new friends as soon as we arrived. Her new constant companion is Salt , a 6-month-old yellow Labrador, who lives on the island. Their budding friendship seems unaffected by Salt’s habit of snatching up several of Magic’s plastic toys in her mouth and bounding away down the beach.


But Salt is not the only canine resident of MacDuff’s. She has a companion in the form of a graying Chihauhau about the size of an average hood ornament. In what should come as no surprise to anyone except those who have had an imagination lobotomy, Salt’s doggy companion’s name is . . . . (drum roll please) . . . “Pepper”!


Pepper’s modus operandi involves curling up into a tiny ball at night amid the folds of comforter on the bed, until the rumblings of her stomach prompt her to seek the kitchen. She has no use for human time, and scoffs at the notion of “morning” as a valid concept. She’s been known to defend her territory by ferociously yapping at shadows, anyone who happens to be in front of her, and passing clouds.


Salt, on the other hand, bolts to our door the moment the first shaft of light hits the window. She greets us with an expectant slobberyness, while knocking glasses off the coffee table with her manic tail-wagging, and stepping on everyone’s toes with her oversized paws. She loves everyone at first sight and without prejudice. Her unbridled enthusiasm never wanes.


Humans could learn something from Salt.