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.