Fireworks suck! Here are some tips from cat behaviorist @mikeldelgado.bsky.social for keeping your cats safe and happy this 4th of July. www.instagram.com/p/C87GFSBpgyk/
1. Make sure your cats are inside. Even if they normally go out, the 4th is not a good day for them to roam. (con't)— Cats of Yore (@catsofyore.bsky.social) July 3, 2025 at 6:56 PM
2. Provide lots of hiding places like boxes, clamshell or cave style beds, cat tree cubbies, etc.
3. Consider making a quiet room, i.e. put their food, water, litter, bedding, toys, etc. in one closed room – especially if you’re having a party.
4. Implement buffer noises such as fans and soft music.5. Engage them in play if they’re into it! It can be a good distraction and tire them out.
6. If your cat is hiding, it’s probably best to leave them alone or just speak to them in a soft voice. Don’t drag them out to “comfort” them – it may have the opposite effect.7. It’s probably too late to get medications now if you don’t already have them, but if your cat experiences stress during fireworks don’t forget to inquire about it during their next visit so you can be prepared in the future! 💥
I would also add that you should not leave your cat alone in the home with screened windows open. I have heard way too many stories about terrified cats busting or clawing through screens and getting lost while experiencing fireworks distress. If you must leave them make sure they are secure!
(I had heard of terrified dogs doing this, but for some reason it never occured to me that cats might react that way.)
stinger
<waves at Calypso> Good doggie!
One of my dogs is bothered by fireworks, as by thunderstorms. My cat never seemed to notice. But these are good tips — thanks on behalf of others!
Jeffg166
With only two firecrackers going off last night things have been fairly quiet so far today. Tonight will be a different story. In the past it has been relentless some year. Maybe people aren’t that into celebrating this year.
trollhattan
Our first doggie vanished (over a previously untested grapestake fence, breaking off several tips) on his first 4th and did not return until the afternoon of the 5th. He wasn’t talking and we never solved the mystery of where he got off to, but he was thoroughly crusty and slept for a day I believe he simply ran, and ran and ran.
On our search we thought we’d found him when somebody asked “are you looking for a Dalmatian?” then fetched another lost boy, just not ours.
The rest of his days we had to dope him on the 4th and New Year’s eve. He never got over that first 4th.
Current dog could not care less. What a relief. I still crank the stereo and close the windows.
Percysowner
Things were quiet yesterday, the community fireworks are far enough away that I never hear them. I didn’t hear anyone in the neighborhood setting things off, although I went to bed early and might have slept through them. There is a chance that they will go off tonight. My kitties all have places to hide and they never go out, so they should be safe.
WereBear
I go around announcing “Booms! Booms tonight!” like somthing out of Dickens.
They hide somewhere and come out ready to be reassured. I have a shaker of L-themine to put on their next meal, and on the treats when they re-emerge.
Good for people, too :)
TaMara
It’s been oddly quiet here for the first time since the pandemic. Still, I have a very skitish Great Dane, the other two are only semi-bothered. But I will stay home, once again, to make sure everyone is safe.
The cats don’t seem too bothered by them, but the ducks put themselves in their coop the moment the boom-booms start.
Also, Calyspo is the cutest thing ever and needs all the belly-rubs.
EmbraceYourInnerCrone
my rescue dog from Puerto Rico was terrified of fireworks and thunderstorms. Crawled under the nearest bed, couch or in the nearest closet. His favorite hiding place when he could get to it was in the basement, in the furnace room. Meds helped and so did a Thunder shirt. He passed a few years back. My sole remaining kitty does not like thunderstorms at all and is scared of fireworks. This is our first 4th in the apartment and it’s been quite a bit quieter than the house was, I think because the management at this complex will evict you for lighting fireworks on the property (which makes me very happy, there were several nearby brushfires here that got pretty scary big…
Harrison Wesley
Fireworks started yesterday and will run through Sunday. Loud and obnoxious. Fortunately I don’t have a pet at the moment. AAND they’ve started already; glad I’ll be away for the weekend.
opiejeanne
I don’t know if any of you have encountered Drennon Davis and his four business cats but I thought I’d share his post today: Fireworks hell.
https://www.facebook.com/share/v/19op3xtRD5/
Van Buren
@EmbraceYourInnerCrone: I had a Maltese that would squeeze under the oil tank in the basement and become filthy.
Current dog doesn’t care.
Jeffg166
The drag queen invasion of fire Island Pines 2025.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYk1gGDj_nQ
lowtechcyclist
Our felines are strictly indoors. Windows will be closed with the A/C on. Iggy will probably spend the evening under a bed. Panda will probably look at us like “what’s the big deal?”
comrade scotts agenda of rage
Terror Bomb Boom Time:
https://archive.ph/u3o3l
We’re down to two cats, one is 17, blind, doesn’t care one iota. The other, Satan’s Handmaiden, her kryptonite is fireworks. We experimented on her last night with a dose of gabapentin and man did that change her personality entirely as in, she was clearly stoned. So that’ll do for tonight while we go out on our bikes and take in our ‘hoods massive amount of ad-hoc, street fireworks.
kalakal
2 of our cats will be fine. The 3rd. Virgil, will be terrified. He’s had a rough few weeks with thunderbooms just about every night, add in the fire works and the poor lad will not be happy.
I really dislike fireworks for the effect they have on animals
cain
Not to worry, when the economy tanks – nobody can afford the thousands of dollars of fireworks these people spend.
Fireworks are banned in Portland now. I haven’t heard a single firework the past week and usually I hear them in the evening.
Suzanne
@cain:
By that measure, my neighbors are doing great financially. We are out of town this week, but my neighbors have been getting in the fireworks spirit for days. At least ten a day for the last two weeks or so. It’s so obnoxious.
Harrison Wesley
SpaceX is opening a facility here in Manatee County. Maybe next year I’ll have a rapid unscheduled disassembly right over my apartment instead of wimpy fireworks.
sab
Residential Fpfireworks (bottle rockets and firecrackers) are illegal within our city’s limits, but that doesn’t seem to stop people. So far our new neighborhood seems a lot better than the old one.
Cats will pobably spend the evening in the basement, the hall or under the beds. The dog will need to be hugged.
Somebody peed on my bed while I was out. I suspect Shadow just because, but it could have been anyone.
Jay
@Suzanne:
Fireworks vendors stocked up big time from China and Mexico before the tariffs FFS hit.
Other “fireworks” holidays should be a little different later on, between tariffs FFS and that plant in California blowing up.
Suzanne
@sab:
I bet it was Baud.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
The ad-hoc street fireworks here in our formerly redlined neighborhood fall along racial lines as in the folks who go all in on the splodeys *tend* to be the black folks that haven’t been displaced out of the neighborhood despite a decade of intense efforts to get them gone. They’ve been doing this for upwards of 70 years back when nobody white would even dream of setting foot in here much less tell the longtime residents to stop it with the splodeys because…reasons.
The whinging that goes on is entirely from the entitled white colonizer/gentrifiers who will offer up a ton of reasons why it’s so bad but it’s always code for “This never happened back in the suburbs.”
Talk to the longtime black residents about this one-on-one and they’re very aware of the complaints and will give you a smile with a twinkle in the eye that basically says “If whitey is annoyed for *one* night of the year, that’s gravy.”
Jay
@sab:
Back when we had cats and dogs and lived in New West, we bought a queen sized adult incontinence bedcover. It’s basically a period pad made out of fabrics. The shiny side goes down, the matt side goes up, and there is an absorbent layer in between. Pee can enter but it can’t leak through, and it’s washable. We would put it overtop of the duvet.
We got it because one of the cats was at first, resentful of our move, then resentful of us getting the dogs, and made her displeasure clear. Eventually, she got over it. Later it became handy when there were fireworks. Then when they all got much older.
JMG
Tonight will be the proof of the pudding, of course, but there has been significantly less fireworks noise in my neighborhood of my Cape Cod town. And tonight might not have that much. The tradition is folks take them down to the town beaches to set them off over Nantucket Sound, but the cops have been rousting these shows the last few years. They start dune grass fires.
Suzanne
@Jay: Well, we’ll see. Previous doggo was very afraid of them. Current doggo is unbothered.
Some of these hold-my-beer types that I live near are very dumb about this stuff. Had an incident last year in which one of them threw a lit firework in a metal dumpster in the alley behind my house. Neighbors had to call the fire department for that one. Dumbasses.
eclare
Luckily no one here cares.
OMG Calypso! Everyone go look!
sab
@Jay: Good suggestion. Wee pads aren’t cutting it any more.
ruemara
Unfortunately we had a massive fireworks factory explosion in a nearby town and I think that kinda cut a lot of the fireworks this year. It’s awful but I think we should be doing drone shows. They don’t blow up unless they’re Ukrainian gifts to Russia.
Elizabelle
@ruemara: agreed re drone shows. Won’t scare cats, dogs, and birds and wildlife. Shouldn’t blow people’s fingers etc off either.
Tragic about that explosion.
trollhattan
@ruemara:
Yes, seven missing, three were brothers. Owners have some explaining to do, although they’re perfectly positioned to blame it on those seven workers.
jackmac
The big suburb near me (Aurora, Illinois) has announced a crackdown on residents shooting off fireworks and promises stiff fines that can reach $1,000 for offenders.
We’ll see how successful enforcement is, but those efforts and pricier fireworks (due to tariffs) might make things a bit quieter for some tonight.
Gvg
My 4 former ferals somehow don’t seem to notice, thank goodness. I have guest pets because my sister is going to Tanzania in a couple of days. The dog used to be frightened but is old and deaf now. Also the older dog was very frightened and I think he was following her example, but she passed away. I will need to check on the guest kitties soon, but they are hiding after the car trip. Not sure about them.
we are having frequent heavy thunderstorms so I think that will cut down the fireworks. Supposed to be all week.
MagdaInBlack
@jackmac: It has been remarkably quiet up here in Arlington Heights. I wonder if we have done the same with regard to fines.
I’ve probably jinxed the silence by acknowledging it.
p.s. i’m so old I remember when Aurora was not a suburb.