From Guy Fawkes and Diwali to Christmas and New Year was unbelievably awful as far as fireworks were concerned. And what on earth possesses people to fire off bomb-like crackers (or any crackers at all) over Christmas, which is meant to be a time of quiet, family celebration, a special time for children. As for Guy Fawkes, this  means nothing to South Africans and is entirely redundant in our society, although this time there was very reduced interest in it. But this was made up for by nights and nights of ghastly bombardments. Diwali was particularly bad and overran for days, having also started well in advance. (See photograph of empty fireworks boxes outside just one home.)

Jacqui was called to Effingham Heights and could see the flashes and hear the bombardment well down the freeway. Unable to find her way, she had to stop and ask three youths for directions. They jumped onto her van and directed her to the house in question.

The owner’s dog was safely inside the house, but the tenant at the back had tied up his six-month-old dog on a short chain and left it outside where it was scratching frantically at the wall, terrified at being left in the dark back yard and surrounded by constant stupendous explosions. It was the owner of the house who had made the call to the SPCA. Jacqui took the terrified dog and left a seizure notice. The owner of the dog phoned back five days later to ask for the return of the dog. His reason was that he had gone away for five days and had left food and water “enough for that time”!
  
The dog was too young to be caged pending the outcome of a court case – which would be cruelty in itself - and would therefore be re-homed. 
   Also at Diwali, a gentleman brought in the body of an elderly staffie that had been so terrified of the fireworks explosions that it began to have violent seizures and died. Its owner brought it in for cremation.

In Sherwood, a terrified dog ran into the owner’s house and then wouldn’t let the household members in. The door had to be forced open so that the dog could be comforted and calmed down so that the people living in the house could enter.

A husky was found in Inanda Road. Fortunately, it had a micro chip and was found to have come all the way from Waterfall! The terrified dog had taken to its heels owing to the explosions of huge fireworks and had just run wildly. It was returned to its owner.

In Phoenix, a wildly anxious dog, terrifed by fireworks, had become trapped in a section of an old abandoned car without tail lights. The dog was caught in the area where one of the tail lights had been. Cyprian was on duty and went to rescue it. It was fortunately unharmed.

A terrified Durban North dog had managed quite a feat. It had climbed up a stack of furniture and got itself stuck on the rafters. It had to be released with the help of a ladder.

A Bluff dog had jammed itself between the bars of a gate. The owner was away. Cyprian went to answer the call and used oil to manoeuvre the dog out.... more reports »