Remember, remember the fifth of November!
To be honest, when I am working, this is not usually the highest priority in my mind.
Fireworks night has a huge impact on pet’s lives in mid Sussex every year, and at The Mewes Vets we do everything we can to minimise the trauma.
We have information sheets we give to owners that are anxious on their pet’s behalf. And we dispense many doses of natural calming medications as well as prescription anti-anxiety tablets to support the super-scared.
Twice in years gone by, when my two terriers used to have the run of the garden, before we converted it into a convenient car park for our clients, my little Pip succeeded in leaping the enormous gate we had. He was so scared by fireworks being let off in the early evening as I finished up, that he ended up at the Police station and had to be sprung from jail! That was an impressive jump for a Jack Russell, even for a trained Crufts agility competitor.
But, generally, speaking, all the preparation is done by the actual evening of the 5th November.
Except for one year, I was conducting my usual Thursday evening late consultations, when I received a message from the Reception desk:
“You need to crack on! We have a client waiting who won’t be able to get home if we don’t finish soon!”
It turned out that she is a resident of central Lindfield. Of course, they close the main road through the village for their big parade, which takes quite a while to progress.
If we did not get her and her pet back into the car and off home pretty pronto, then the pair of them were going to have to sit in the car until it was all over, potentially with fireworks and bangers going off overhead, and insufficient opportunity to muffle the worst effects.
We did a quick shuffle of cases, and I reduced the chatter somewhat, helping to speed things along, and I believe that all was well. It’s a good thing the client spoke up when she did. I could have completely overlooked the significance of the date otherwise.
