dancingleaf

last night J& I were watching TV. Just about ready to head to bed.

We hear a tentative pop.

Whoops - fireworks. - great right... holiday weekend. terrific.

If we know someone is having fireworks we leave & go for a late night walk with the dogs. Or we dose them with Doggie Valium and try to ride it out.

Pandora was a tiny pup and was outside in the backyard when she had her first encounter with fireworks. One of our neighbours set off one of those loud whistly-bang ones right over head and she's been freaked out ever since. And I mean really really freaked out. And continues to be freaked out by fireworks and thunderstorms. So much that on one fireworks occasion she attempted to climb through the bathroom mirror to get away from the noise.

Last night - we immediately dose her with valium. and put her into a T-shirt, turn on the lights and some music and shut the 4 of us into our master bedroom. (T-shirt does chest compression and makes them feel held - supposedly)

The fireworks continue. It doesn't help. We give her a second dose of valium. She's shaking like a leaf. I'm sitting on one side of her, Mason is on the other and we are trying to reassure her.

I decide - maybe we'll just have to get out of there - nothing is working that night.

I say truck ride and both dogs immediately react positively. So - I put my shoes on and grab my purse - put the dogs on their leashes and out we go for a late night ride.

So we're out there - driving the country roads, still some panicking...we're avoiding civilization getting out there and... wouldn't you know it. There's a dog running around on the road. He's scared. And running. And there's more fireworks a ways back. Great.

So the dog is racing back and forth across this road, dodging the few cars coming along. He's spooked. Not a real busy highway or anything but ... the speed limit on it is pretty high and it is a fairly busy road during the day. Not a lot of houses on it but...

Yeah. So I stay in the truck with the dogs. J tracks down the dog and after a lot of fussing etc. He gets a leash on the dog. And no tags. Great. But she/he/it - looks in good condition - not a stray. Young, brushed - no burrs or anything. A really nice collar but no tags. Golden retriever maybe? probably. maybe not purebred but... not a lot of mix either. Well behaved. House trained - that's good. He certainly knows how to ride in a car.

Long story short- we took the dog home with us. Dug out our dog crate - set it up. Put "newbie" into the crate. Pandora & Mason were okay with him. Despite the fact that he was an INTACT MALE. ugh. Let me tell ya - he marked everything in our yard.

This morning I took him back to that neighbourhood and went to the nearest business - a gas station and asked if anyone had lost a dog.... Fortunately the attendant did know the dog, did know the owner and was able to direct me there. Where I found the mom & daughter were out hunting for the dog and the dad was at home trying to phone everyone he could think of - pound, animal countrol, local non emergency police # etc. and trying to find a picture of the dog.

They were very glad to have him back this morning. Turns out he had a bath two days ago - got a new collar but the tags hadn't been transferred to the new collar yet.

There's my excitement.

And Pandora and Mason were relaxed by the Valium & stimulated by the presence of the new dog and forgot all about the fireworks. We're still going OUT tonight to avoid any repeats of the fireworks stress.

I really HATE fireworks.