Yankee Doodle Doggy, Winston--I wonder if he is afraid of fireworks?

Beau almost made it through the Fourth of July bang, boom, bam.  We dogsat with him all night, missing the fireworks displays, which I love.  I have six documented patriots in my ancestry from the Revolutionary War, and some fought alongside General Washington, so July 4th is a day I love to celebrate, even if I turned traitor and married a Brit. Sorry, General Lewis! 

I did hop on my bike and buzz around the neighborhood for a quickie free fireworks show, but I raced right back home when the big guns went off. How I would have loved to see the Cal Expo display. I heard it was going to be a real dazzler this year, but since I was already worn out from watching the Davis Bike Races all afternoon in the heat, it didn't seem like too much of a hardship to skip the rockets' red glare last night for the sake of my chicken s--t hound dog. After skimming all the lost dog ads on Craig's List this morning, it's clear we made the right decision that many others unfortunately didn't. 

I did dose Beau with some Rescue Remedy herbal supplement, but I didn't end up using the heavy duty knockout drug I bought from our vet a week ago in preparation for the big night. He seemed to be doing fine without it. We just kept the TV turned up loud and the A/C humming, which worked fine to drown out the pyrotechnics--until time to hit the sack, that is.  Once the tube went off, so did Beau.  He freaked out and barreled into my bedroom, shinnied up onto the bed as fast as his stubby legs would allow, and there he stayed the rest of the night. His head popped up a couple of times when some cherry bombs went off, but I turned my TV volume up and he finally drifted off. 

LOST, FOUND, LOST, FOUND--I thought it particularly sad reading all the posts for lost and found pets on Craig's List, which I'm sorry to say were all too predictable. One post was from someone who lost his chihuahua last night. Another poster said one had been seen lying by the side of the road today on South Watt Ave.  It had apparently been struck and killed by a car. What a tragedy, and one that is entirely avoidable.  I guess people won't ever learn about pets and fireworks or thunderstorms.  Keep pets in, close pet doors, drug them if you have to. Make sure they have ID on them, just in case. 

Pets don't want independence from their homes on July 4, but you can be certain that the city and county shelters are much fuller on July 5; that is, if the errant pets ever make it that far. The poor chihuahua didn't. And if the owner doesn't claim that lost pet from the shelter in 72 hours, it's probably history, anyway.