The Verdict -- Robert Gardner
Another grand and glorious Fourth of July has passed, and my dog is a
basket case. I’ll admit that as an animal lover I may be a bit sensitive
to the rights of animals versus those of us humans, but it seems we
inflict some pretty awful terror on our pets at this time of year.
Supposedly, there is a ban on fireworks in Newport Beach, but there are
always a few scofflaws, and this year was no exception.
I don’t know about cats, but dogs have very sensitive hearing. At the
first firecracker, my dog dove under the bed where she hid for several
hours. I had just persuaded her that it was safe to come out when some
idiot in my neighborhood started his own professional fireworks show.
This time I joined my dog under the bed, not being entirely sure it
wasn’t the first salvo in an invasion. In World War II, I was on Iwo
Jima, and this was right up there with it. Not only did my dog have her
paws over her ears, so did a bunch of huskies in Alaska. Of course, after
a few seconds I remembered what day it was. Feeling a little foolish, I
climbed out from under the bed and could see that there was a visual
display to go with the sound so I invited my dog to watch, but she was
having no part of it. She was under the bed and was going to stay under
the bed. She was still under there the next morning.
Modern man’s preoccupation with loud noise baffles me. To me, perfect
happiness is pretty quiet. I like natural sounds like the sound of surf
and the wind through the trees. I also like the man-made sound of Benny
Goodman on his clarinet and Lionel Hampton on the vibes. What I don’t
like is sound just for the sake of sound, and this seems to put me out of
step with many of my fellow Americans who simply seem to have to have
sound, the louder the better, as attested to by my neighbor’s show.
Well, we’re all supposed to be entitled to life, liberty and the
pursuit of happiness, but is it a valid part of that pursuit that one can
annoy his or her neighbor and, more importantly, that neighbor’s dog?
* ROBERT GARDNER is a Corona del Mar resident and a former judge. His
column runs Tuesdays.
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