Sunday, January 1, 2023 Guess who crashed our party last night? Blue!!! He did! We were playing games in the great room and who strolls through – the big white outside dog! The fireworks started early here, like 8 pm and Blue was terrified. So the snow made it easy for him to jump into the back yard and he found the dog door, so he decided to seek comfort inside. I did get him back into the barn (he and Banjo do NOT get along, so staying in the house was not an option) and it took me about an hour to get him settled down, but when the big bangs started at midnight he took off. It took a while to find him and then I sat in the barn with him for about an hour to calm him again. He followed me and jumped over the gate when I tried to go back to my warm bed. Ugh. At just about 2 am I had had enough and had to go inside. It looked like he followed me into the back yard, but I left him there and finally got to bed. (and I’m the one who said I couldn’t stay up til midnight!) The foot of new snow is making it too easy for him to jump over fences this morning and the kids have gone out to put him back on twice already. And you ask why I dislike fireworks? It was the most traumatized I’ve ever seen him. So we’ll work on shoveling and fencing ideas this morning and hope it’s enough help him forget that he can climb those fences. Happy New Year’s Day!
Photo of the day: At least 12 new inches and still falling. 
Lana
Poor Blue! And the fireworks are close by? I’m so glad we don’t have any nearby, as we’ve had dogs like Blue. The poor things often cannot be comforted and just want to hide.
Linda
The fireworks are right across the street, close to the river. Plenty close enough to terrify all our animals. Sidenote, when I was at the ER getting my wound stitched,(post from 1/2/23) every single person who attended to me had a dog or two who were very very upset by the fireworks. Plus many other dog bite wounds were in the ER that morning from firework stressed dogs! Stop the madness and lets invent silent fireworks!
Lana
Yes, indeed! I’ve seen some beautiful ones online that don’t use explosives. I think young children and soldiers who’ve experienced battle would also appreciate ones without the noise!
Linda
Yes! They have silent fireworks in Italy, they are set to music and beautiful. I don’t know why we can’t have them everywhere.