July 4th Horror Show: Don’t let this happen to your dog!

The 4th of July is almost here. For many of us, the “booms” have started and our pets are feeling the stress. You might have noticed that every rescue, vet clinic and pet blogger out there has been posting tips and warnings in recent weeks about the dangers of the holiday to our pets. I came across a story this week that I want to share with you. Don’t let this July 4th horror show happen to your dog!

A dog, a glass door and fireworks…

A year ago, animal control officer Heather Terpening was having a normal shift when she received a call about an injured dog. When she arrived at the scene, she found a panicking, bleeding boxer mix and saw this (pictures posted with permission):

A neighbor had heard some fireworks go off, followed by a huge crash and scream. Following the sounds, they saw a huge mess and an injured dog. No one was home at the time this happened. So these great neighbors called for help.

Officer Terpening arrived and was able to get the bleeding boxer into her truck, with a bit of help. Luckily, the boxer was ok after some veterinary care, and was reunited later with her family! When Officer Terpening shared this story on her Facebook page, however, things took a strange turn. While some people thanked her for her Public Service Announcement about the dangers of fireworks and scared dogs…many others attacked her! People accused her of having faked the pictures!

July 4th Horror Show: It happened to me!

I can tell you from personal experience that a dog with sufficient motivation can go straight through a window!

I was dog sitting for a friend who had two labs. The yellow lab was an older gent, well behaved. The black lab was a huge beast of a dog! 120 pounds of pure, mischievous labness. He was my favorite, even though he always got into trouble.

My friend did not believe in using crates or any kind of restrictions on his dogs. He actually gave them free run of the house and also left the back door wide open while he was at work. So it was not uncommon to come home and find that the black lab ate a 5 pound bag of flour. Or chewed on the blades to the food processor. Or killed a squirrel in the yard and brought it into the kictchen…

The weekend before the 4th

It was dusk, and I was taking a shower and getting ready to head out to a party. The dogs had just eaten and were hanging in the living room. Suddenly I hear the dogs barking and feel a crash boom through the house. I could feel the vibrations through the wall of the bathroom! I quickly toss some clothes on and dash out to the living room.

The yellow lab was standing in front of the window, still barking. Except that the window was gone! There were a few shards of glass in the corners, but that was it. And I notice no sign of a black lab…yikes!

Grabbing some shoes and a leash I dash out the door. There is a pile of glass in front of the window…and a trail of blood. I follow the trail down the street. A few blocks away I spy a group of people on bicycles…and a bouncing silhouette that can only be the lab I am looking for.

He is a mess. I can’t tell how many cuts he has but every time he moves more blood drips to the ground. I quickly ask the folks on the bicycles what happened as I wrap a towel around a bad cut on the lab’s shoulder. They tell me they were just peddling down the street, holding some lit sparklers, when they heard the sound of breaking glass and the next thing they knew a monster-sized lab was running alongside them!

He liked sparklers, I learned later

We exchanged phone numbers, and I rush the lab to the nearest emergency clinic. I couldn’t get a hold of my friend (pre-cell phone days), but I had his credit card in case of an emergency. A few hours later, and a lot of sutures, we get home and I can start dealing with the shattered window. I never did get around to going to the party. I had to keep the lab leashed to me as well, just in case he decided to go through the hole in the window again.

The good news is that the black lab healed well, and other than a few scars had no permanent injuries! My friend replaced the window, and nailed a futon frame over it to prevent him from being able to go through it again.

It turned out that the black lab has always been facinated by those sparklers, and has chased people before and even jumped up to try and grab them out of people’s hands. My friend thought it was funny but hadn’t thought to warn me about it. I’m not sure how we could have anticipated a group of people bicycling down the street at dusk holding sparklers…or that the lab would decide to go through a window and join the fun.

How I learned to hate this holiday!

In the end, all was well, although things could have gone differently. What if I hadn’t been home when he went through the window? What if he had been hit by a car while chasing after the bicycles? What if…? This wasn’t my first July 4th horror show (the first was when my house caught fire from fireworks when I was 10), it was just my first that involved a pet. I still have the mental scars today.

Believe me, a motivated dog can and will go through a double panel window. A scared dog, in a panic, can easily injure themselves trying to get away from whatever is scaring them.  I want to thank Officer Terpening for permission to use her story and pictures in this post. No one faked these pictures, or these stories. Crazy things happen to pets around the July 4th holiday. We don’t have to fake anything.

I wish you and your Tribe a safe and happy 4th! You can read some tips on keeping your pet safe this 4th of July here.

Have you had a July 4th horror show in your home? Share your story with us in the comments!