I sincerely wish everyone a happy and healthy 4th of July. I celebrate America and my newly acquired membership in the club of American Citizenship (will be voting this fall for the first time)
Sadly, there is one thing that bugs me - though “bugs” is not even close to how I truly feel about fireworks. I loathe, despise, abhor, hate (supply more adjectives) the fricking things.
My dog: KD is an 8 year old mixed breed pit bull, chocolate lab and a bit of dobie, we think. She suffers terrible anxiety, likely caused by abuse when she was little. She also has strong noise aversion response. I believe I have already mentioned her in a previous essay. She needs to be heavily sedated almost daily due to frequent Florida thunderstorms. The addition of fireworks to her already primed nervous system is pouring oil on the fire. From July 2 till July 7, all the neighborhood yahoos shoot fireworks well into the night. If KD could assume a human face, she’d look like the man in Edvard Munch’s “Scream”. I went to sleep at 5am last night when she finally settled down. Tonight we’re spending in a hotel far from firework displays - fingers crossed
My cats: both are seniors now. Miki sleeps and eats on the lanai, runs in and hides the moment the booms begin and stays hidden till all hours. I don’t know when he uses his cat door to sneak back out. Tyrone is now blind in one eye - still remains the thug to other cats, but I notice he now craves more cuddles. He will stay under the bed for 12 hour from the moment the fireworks start at 8pm till 4am when he judges the environment to be safe. The first week of July, this is his daily pattern
As for me, I suffer both PTSD and misophonia, which is a paralyzing fear of certain noises: gun shots, fireworks and a few other things - though not thunder, thankfully. My nerves are jangled by road noise (I use only high quality tires), restaurant noise/chatter and a score of other mundane noises other people don’t notice. My misophonia is exacerbated by “cochlear hydrops”, which is deafness and loud tinnitus caused by excess endolymphatic fluid in the inner ear. The PTSD is too long a story, so I’ll leave it for another post.
In short: 4th of July and New Year’s Eve are hell in our family. Thank God for the one mentally stable person in the household: my wife
(p.s. - the promised literary piece coming later today or tomorrow)
Fireworks are the worst! Same experience here on Canada Day. I feel terrible for the critters.