Things that go BANG in the night.

I quite enjoy fireworks, even if it does tend to involve standing outside in the cold and wet, cricking one’s neck backwards and making appreciative “Ooh” noises at the pyrotechnic display overhead. At least, it’s quite nice for half an hour although after that a combination of frost-bite and trench foot start to erode my enthusiasm for the whole thing.

It’s Guy Fawkes night tonight and I may take the kids down to the park to see the public fireworks display (if the weather holds out) but this commemoration of the gunpowder plot seems to have been going on for the best part of two weeks now and I expect we will still get the occasional explosion for another week or so. This is all well and good but it also means that I am compelled to walk the dog during the daytime and, given that I also have to work for a living, this isn’t always possible.

I think the problem comes down to two things – a lack of occasion and knobheads. The lack of occasion is something that Nina picked up on. Fireworks are freely available in Germany for New Year’s celebrations and typically go on sale for a few days prior to this after Christmas. They are set off, en masse, on the stroke of midnight and the sight and sound of this is quite spectacular. However, with Guy Fawkes night the fireworks are staggered, not only across the night but now, seemingly, for the fortnight surrounding it. Not only does it lose impact put the whole period is a nightmare for pet owners.

The other problem seems to be more of a UK based issue which is knobheads: morons who purchase fireworks for the sole purpose of public nuisance whether this is using them as weapons, idiotic pranks or idle nuisance. I came across this many years ago when a teenage knobhead threw a banger at our dog. Unfortunately, the dog ran away and hid under a car rather than doing the sensible thing of viciously mutilating the fecker’s face.

I think that there could be a reasonable solution to both problems which would be a simple licensing system for fireworks. This wouldn’t have to be anything too arduous but just a council-issued ticket that would allow fireworks to be bought after specifying the time and place that they are intended to be used. This would enable anyone in the near vicinity to be warned in advance and also provide a reasonable way of prosecuting and/or banning anyone who abuses the fireworks once purchased.

Of course, this still leaves the issue of what to do with anxious pets. I’d suggest the best thing is to leave them in a warm and comfortable place with some soothing music to listen to – just like I did with Sam:

Listening to soothing music can help anxious pets during fireworks displays.