Editor:
I was at the veterinarian today with my dog, Walter, who is recovering from a back problem. While I was waiting in the lobby for Walter to be examined, I watched a large stretcher roll in carrying a big, sweet-faced, but very listless, dog. The owner sat next to me as they rushed her dog into emergency. She told me that early in the morning someone had exploded a firework, something we also hear a lot now, as the Fourth of July approaches. Every year people start early and sound explodes around us at all times of day and night. Walter shakes, runs around the house, and finally cowers inconsolably in some corner, under a table, or against a wall. We often send him to a friend's for the Fourth because of all of the noise in our neighborhood, but the unexpected fireworks that precede the holiday are impossible to plan for.
The lady in the waiting room explained to me that when her dog heard the exploding cherry bomb, he unsuccessfully tried to leap over a picket fence. Rather than clearing it, he was impaled on the fence. The woman found her dog lying on the grass with its intestines falling out of a gaping hole in the dog's stomach. We waited there as Walter's surgeon and other doctors in the clinic determined the severity of the wounded dog's injuries. After a while, a technician came out and ushered the woman away. When I went to look for a drink of water, I found her crying in a corner of the hospital. She said that her dog was so severely hurt that he was not going to live. She was waiting as the vets prepared to put her dog down.
If you care about animals at all, know that most of them do not like fireworks. They are afraid of loud sounds and the Foruth of July is torture for them — and not much better for their owners. We don't like to see our pets suffer, and they often become wild and impossible to console when they are so frightened. I am sure that whoever set off that cherry bomb did not realize they would actually kill someone's beloved pet dog, but they did.
Marie Keller
Santa Monica
