Fearing Fireworks on the Fourth

istock_000006421519xsmall.jpgSo the Fourth of July has come and gone–Pom Pom couldn’t be happier.

She’s always been completely terrified of that loud popping noise made by fireworks. In San Diego, we’d just shut all the doors and windows and wait for the all the firework shows to come to an end.

Things are a little different here in Oregon–anyone can but fireworks at the unlimited number of fireworks stands that line just about every major street in the city. Since it’s illegal to buy and shoot off fireworks in Southern California, seeing all these opportunities to buy these things is definitely new to us.

People have been shooting them off pretty much every night for the last week. Any time Pom would hear one, she’d start to shake and Casper would whimper a little.

On the night of the Fourth, it was just hours of nonstop popping. We shut all the windows and turned up the TV to help mute the noise…that worked pretty well. The real trouble came when I had to take the dogs out to pee-I waited until there was a lull in the fireworks, then took them out. Of course, as soon as we got out, there was a good solid minute of LOUD popping. Pom went straight to the ground, completely tense, and started shaking uncontrollably (after the initial whimper, Casper wasn’t bothered at all by the noise).

After that, she was tense all night–shaking like crazy.

I wasn’t able to take her out to pee until four in the morning. It really sucked seeing her stress out like that.

The really crappy thing is that all those firework stands are selling their leftover inventory for like 50 percent off…so we’re still hearing random pops every night.

In summary, Fourth of July=Good, everybody in the world shooting off fireworks on Fourth of July night=Lame.

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