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Short Paws: Firework Night Survival Guide for Your Pets · Paws Between Us - Pet Stories, Welfare and Building A Bond

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  Welcome to Paws Between Us, your regular dose of positive pet news.
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  Every other week, we bring you a short, uplifting episode packed with the latest
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  feel-good stories and research from the world of pets. So take
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  a moment to tune out from all the negative news dominating our headlines and help
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  us shine a light on the good, celebrating the joy pets bring to our lives
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  and sharing the inspiring changes making their lives better too.
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  So settle in for a short pause and let's spread some positivity
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  together. Hello. Hello there.
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  How's it going? Yeah. All right. Thank you very much.
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  Not too bad. You? Good. Good. Good. Yes. All good
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  today. Thank you. I think we're dedicating this episode to fireworks,
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  aren't we? Remember, remember the 5th of November. Yes. Which is
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  coming up soon. So we thought we'd give you some top tips
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  to help manage pets' wellbeing during that time. Have you got a reactive
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  animal or are you lucky to have a laid-back Betty, whatever the word will
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  be? Yeah. And that's, that's a better description. And I just said, oh yeah,
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  today's all about fireworks. We're just, I mean, that's very vague, isn't it?
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  But we are talking about, yeah, it's fireworks season and
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  yeah. They go on and on and on. Oh yeah.
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  Fireworks season becomes kind of New Year's celebrations
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  and then, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I know there's debates about
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  whether they should only be public events, but we won't get into that today.
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  We'll just be talking about some top tips to help. I mean, does, does Betty
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  react to fireworks? Do you know what? She doesn't
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  actually. She is oblivious, and I'm not sure
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  why, because there are plenty of fireworks going off around
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  where we live. Yeah, she, because she's like a sleeper,
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  she loves to sleep. I think she sleeps through a lot of
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  it, and she's never been particularly sensitive to loud noises.
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  I, on the other hand, I'm terrible with loud noises and
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  loud bangs and some kids let off some fireworks
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  in the, in the middle of the day last week while I was at a
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  bus stop. Oh no. And I jumped out of my skin because I didn't
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  expect it. It was so loud and I do have this like noise sensitivity.
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  So I just thought to myself, if I'm scared,
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  some poor pets must really feel the effects, the ones
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  that are real sort of sensitive. So yeah, it was quite scary.
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  My little heart was racing. Well, it would be as well, 'cause in the middle
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  of the day it's unexpected. Expected at nighttime. You know what it is. Yeah,
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  I really wanted to say to these kids, oh, come on. And then,
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  yeah, I thought, oh my, just being this sort of old lady who is
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  gonna have a, a moan at some— a Karen.
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  Yeah, people like to say. Yeah. And apparently though,
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  because I was then looking up this, because I thought I've become a lot more
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  sensitive to noise over the last few years and I never used to be.
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  And I don't want to take this short pause off on a tangent because
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  we're here to talk about our beloved pets, but actually, women experience
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  increased sound sensitivity in midlife, primarily due to hormonal
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  fluctuations because of perimenopause and menopause. So there you go, I have
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  my answer. That everything is,
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  everything is the menopause. We're having so many troubles and struggles with it,
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  aren't we? We are. Like, but I just
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  cannot deal with loud bangs. So I think on firework night,
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  I'm gonna be wearing some Cowering in
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  a corner with some earphones on. I'm certainly not going to
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  any firework nights. I don't know what it is. It's just, I find it really
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  painful. But Betty, no, she's actually okay. So I feel quite
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  lucky that she's not impacted, but also really pleased for her that she
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  doesn't seem scared in any way, because I know some dogs and cats have a
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  terrible time with it and get very, very anxious
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  and very afraid, which I think we're gonna, we're gonna talk about. But what about
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  Weaver and Murray? No, they're really laid back. All of my cats have been.
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  I don't remember I think my old outdoor
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  cat, sort of moggy that I used to have, Whiskers, when I was young,
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  I think I remember her being a bit skittish, but that might've been because she
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  was outside when, you know, she lived outside most of the time. So obviously when
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  the fireworks going off, she was outdoors. Diaz, Roscoe, Marine Weaver
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  have not blinked an eye. And like, I mean,
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  I wonder whether, I mean, one thing, they're obviously
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  indoors, so they're a bit more protected, but I mean, we have the TV on
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  and we have noise kind of going all evening. We've had movies with crashes and
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  bangs. I'm wondering whether they're just desensitised to the sort of randomness of
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  noises, 'cause we're watching like Marvel movies or something. But no,
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  we're lucky. Again, they're lucky, we're lucky. We don't have
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  any problem, so. Yeah, it's a good point actually. Maybe for pets
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  and people living in urban areas, you get a bit more used
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  to noises and like you say, sort of you become
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  a bit more desensitised to it. But I was
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  sort of looking up some of the stats online and there was a research,
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  kind of some research conducted in 2025 by an
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  agency. Um, they did a fireworks poll and it
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  said that 60% of dogs, um,
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  surveyed, or the, the owners who've surveyed, were negatively
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  affected by fireworks. So that's like really high, is that 60% of
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  dogs are in distress as a result of fireworks going
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  off. Um, so yeah. Okay.
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  That is a real problem. Um, help is out there though, which I
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  think we've been looking at, but you've been looking at it from the cat perspective,
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  haven't you? So what have you found in terms of reporting or
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  advice? Yeah. Yeah. So there's, there's lots of advice
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  on places like the RSPCA. You can look these up if you wanna have a
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  look into it a bit more. Cats Protection, Dogs Trust, the British Veterinary Association,
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  PDSA, all of the big players have advice,
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  and particularly at this time of year. But yeah, with the cats, I mean,
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  I did it from my own perspective and then had a little look at some
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  of the advice, but having places where they can hide,
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  so making sure that they can still access their like cosy beds,
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  place in the cupboard, under the TV,
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  wherever they may go, so that they can still kind of dash off and
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  hide away and don't stop them from doing that. That's always a good tip for
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  cats. Provide high spaces where they can reach and get to,
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  because cats naturally like to seek higher spaces. So if you've got like tops
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  of wardrobes and shelves and other kind of cat climbers, make sure they
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  can access those. There's obviously the obvious ones of like trying to keep
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  them indoors. If they are an outdoor cat, if you can try and get them
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  in before it gets dark and then they can stay in for a few hours
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  while the fireworks are going off. That'll obviously help with any stress.
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  A good one is to close curtains and blinds so they're not seeing the flashes.
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  So keep the room sort of dark. Like what, like what I've said, we have
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  the TV on a little bit louder so that it kind of drowns out any
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  random bangs and crashes. So that tends to help
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  my cats. And yeah, like I say, play, play's a good one so
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  you can distract them. And if they are quite seriously affected,
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  you can go down the sort of supplements and, um, other kind
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  of calming products. Sort of side of things with Feliway and Pet
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  Remedy. Sprays, atomisers, treats and
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  things can do that as well. So if you want something a bit more robust,
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  you can follow that line and ask your vet for some support there.
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  What about dogs? Are there similar things for dogs as well?
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  Yes. A lot of the guidance that I found online is
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  very, very similar, sort of ranging from the common sense approach,
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  in terms of, you know, walk your dog during the day, not at night
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  when fireworks are more likely to go off. Through to, you know, other practical
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  things like, you know, the pheromone diffusers that disperse
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  the calming chemicals in the room.
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  And yeah, closing all the windows and curtains to muffle sound.
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  And interestingly, I was at an event a few weeks
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  ago and for, of course, pets and pet parents.
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  And there was a wonderful stall there demoing
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  some products called Hush Muffs, which are
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  soft fleece-lined calming head coverings designed to reduce anxiety and muffle
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  for loud noises for dogs. So they're kind of like little sort of headphones.
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  Cute. That you put around a dog's head and cover their ears
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  that, yeah, we just thought I could do with some of those as well.
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  I'm not sure, just sure about a dog, but yeah, brilliant for dogs though.
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  And yeah, I think that, you know, they do reduce
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  noise. Good idea. And they, yeah, they kind of give that sort
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  of calming, gentle swaddling hug sensation around the head
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  to help dogs relax. And so yeah, they're great for that kind of thing.
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  Things. Like, it is really, really similar, um,
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  for dogs, definitely. I did wonder though, I mean, clearly foxes
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  are wildlife and not pets, but I did wonder,
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  we have so many foxes around where we are and we always see them
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  out at night when we do the sort of last dog walk. Like, I wonder
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  how they deal with some of the sort of the loud bangs
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  and noises and whether they hide away as well or whether they're not bothered.
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  Birds and hedgehogs and all sorts. I always
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  think about, I know there's, I know a lot of people who have horses and
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  livestock. I hate calling them livestock, like just,
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  you know, other animals, let's say. Oh,
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  actually I'm making myself sick thinking I even said the word livestock.
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  It's just not within my vocabulary. But yeah, those sorts of animals I think do
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  have quite a lot of difficulties because they're outside.
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  And I think, yeah, any animal that's mainly kept outdoors
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  is probably gonna experience more problems. And I think like the other thing I
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  did read about was like, if you've got a rabbit and it's in an outdoor
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  hutch, one thing is to sort of temporarily bring it into a garage or put
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  it into the house, into the kitchen where you've got wipeable
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  flooring, or cover it with a really heavy blanket just so that the sound
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  and noise can help there as well. But yeah, it does affect lots of kind
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  of different types of animals. And there's
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  like stats I read that there's usually a spike in lost dogs around
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  that time of year because whilst they're out, the dog bolts,
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  then, you know, you've, you've got a runaway there and it can
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  be a real problem. So yeah, a good tip about walking
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  them early and keeping them indoors. Yeah, no,
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  I didn't think about that in terms of maybe a dog getting scared
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  and somehow getting off the lead and running away.
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  So I, yeah. It's a
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  tricky one, isn't it, this time of year? Because it isn't just, like I said
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  earlier, it doesn't feel just limited to like the 5th of November. It seems like
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  they go on for a long time. And so trying to adapt your routine
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  and adapt your life around that can be quite tricky.
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  Yeah, I think that's what some pet owners struggle with, I think, because if they
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  have got a sensitive reactive animal, then not knowing when it's gonna happen, like,
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  yes, you could prepare for firework
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  night, but if they're going to happen like the week later or the week before
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  or a random time in the year, you can't prepare
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  as well. This is why I think some people want to have
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  them only used for public displays rather than personal use.
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  But yeah, that's an individual choice, isn't it? Yes, it is.
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  So, and I thought there was kind of a,
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  sort of an online campaign around that. I was just
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  sort of looking it up now to see whether it's still out there, whether that's
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  a thing, like Yeah. Has it gone anywhere? Has it made any progress?
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  Good question, because I think we covered it a few weeks ago. Yeah. We definitely
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  did talk about it. I think we shared it if people wanted to sign it,
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  but I hadn't looked at how well or not well it had gone.
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  But I know there was still things in the news recently about it. There's still
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  pressure from different campaigning groups to limit
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  it for various reasons. People are still irresponsible with fireworks. Like you
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  said, kids were letting them off in a street in the daytime just for the
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  shock value, because you're not going to see them in the daytime, are you?
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  They're just trying to kind of cause a bit of fuss. Yeah, they were.
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  Exactly. It sounded like a gun going off. Yeah. And I couldn't
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  see anything. It was just the noise. And yeah,
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  I think if you could still have firework displays
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  that look pretty in the sky, but without making all these kind of whooshing
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  and banging noises, that would be like amazing. But yeah,
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  I don't know. So, oh, it's awful to think some of our like pets
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  are really, really terrified when they don't need to be. Yeah.
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  So I suppose our advice maybe would be, obviously talk to your vet and see
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  if there's any sort of stronger through those calming products that might help. But like
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  all the little tips about keeping the, keeping your little pet indoors
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  and keeping everything kind of warm and cosy and maybe putting on some background
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  noise. I think they talked about having white noise, but my TV just works
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  as well for my cats. So hopefully following those tips might help
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  everybody. Yep. So yeah, stay safe and I hope
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  your pets all feel kind of safe as well. And we'll see you next
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  week. On the next episode, which will be about passports for pets.
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  So if you are travelling abroad, Sasha's been away to
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  Jersey, she's been to France, so she knows a bit more about this. We'll be
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  bringing in Gemma Nash from PassPets, who will be able to give
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  us a bit of background and a bit of information onto how to go
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  about getting a passport and travelling with your animal and the best practice.
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  Yeah, should be good. Yeah, great. All right, well,
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  hopefully see you all soon. Take care. Bye.