If only the fireworks were silent
- Laura Moore: Housebroken
- July 12, 2022
- 513
This past Monday we Americans celebrated our country’s birthday with lots of grilling, good food and loud bangs.
The fireworks are awesome to see, a bit loud to hear and absolutely terrifying for our pets. Our poor pups start to shake with the first boom. As the noise becomes intense, they begin to run madly around the house looking for a safe place to hide. One year the older dog got so frightened he began to “lose” his supper all over our living room. Huddling in a closet is the best way we’ve found to calm them a bit. They still tremble and whimper, but the dark closet limits their running around the area.
Many years ago the kids in our neighborhood got hold of as many fireworks as they could, and when it got dark on July 4, they set them off. It was a wonder there were not more injuries.
One year a kid blew two of his fingers off, and another kid somehow managed to set his hair on fire. Needless to say, that should have ended the fireworks in our neighborhood, but it didn’t. Somehow those kids managed to collect fireworks and then sneak off after dark.
Our parents were too vigilant for us to get away with that behavior. In fact, one year we kids had to spend the evening of the Fourth inside trying to calm frantic dogs. The dogs were somewhat comforted. We kids were mad, but we still have all our fingers and hair.
To this day, we prefer being at a distance for the fireworks shows. Even at a distance, the noise is loud and the dogs are scared. When are we humans going to invent silent fireworks? Perhaps then we could all enjoy the celebrations, even our pups.