No wonder dogs hate fireworks
In 1994 we celebrated Independence Day with our son who was barely ten months old. Every Independence Day since we have celebrated with one or both of our children. This was the first year it was just the two of us.
Since our kids would be out celebrating on their own miles away and since the weather looked unpredictable and since our JRT Vanilla absolutely can’t stand fireworks and since our place would probably give us a great view of some fireworks, we thought we’d stay home this year.
I have been alive for 53 Independence Days and while I certainly don’t remember them all, I only remember staying home once. I think that’s true for most people too. We were talking yesterday about how July 4th is probably the biggest day of the year for “everyone” being out and about. I am always aware of the traffic on July 4th and Halloween but since the latter is more specific to certain ages, I think July 4th beats it.
Anyway, we did see a movie early in the day - The Secret Life of Pets 2. It was delightful and it was really fun to see it in a theater full of laughing families. I’m glad we chose it over Spiderman - which was what both of our kids watched (separated by 3000 miles).
When the fireworks started, we got a glimpse into our own pet’s secret life. From where we sat we could see fireworks from at least 10 different directions - and we could hear all of them and others which were not in our field of view. Vanilla was absolutely terrified. We thought she’d like that we were there to protect her, but I think she was more annoyed than anything since we seemed to be enjoying it.