7-year-old "Bubba" is a carefree Pit bull who frequents Visalia's Bark Park. But when the July 4th holiday comes around, Bubba is not his usual, happy self.
"When he was younger he went to hide under the bed and I had a new mattress on and he couldn't fit under there but he went anyway and pushed the whole thing over, the box springs and the mattress," Judy Stumpf said.
Stumpf says Bubba is petrified of fireworks and now has to take a tranquilizer to get through them. "Last night he was nervous he was pacing he was trying to hide under furniture
Valley Oak SPCA is advising pet owners to keep their pets indoors or kennel them Monday night to prevent them from running off scared when they hear the loud noises. "The best thing to do to keep your pet calm is be home with them if you can," Tami Crawford said. "Turn the TV on or the radio."
Shelters like the SPCA are inundated with hundreds of extra pets during the Fourth of July holiday.
On Tuesday morning the adoption center at the Visalia Mall is expected to be full of lost pets who ran way because of fireworks The mall adoption center will be acting as a pet recovery location for people who may have lost their pets from the July 4th fireworks.
Crawford says the heat can also be dangerous for a lost pet, "in this kind of heat it would just be horrible for a pet to get out."
"The ground is very hot they'll be looking for shady places to hide so nighttime is going to be a big time because that's when it'll cool down and you'll see more of these dogs on the loose." Crawford says this holiday weekend has already been a busy one for animal control. On Sunday there were eight pet-related emergencies, mostly pets hit by cars. That's four times as many accidents than a normal day.
The pet recovery center at the Visalia Mall will be open on Tuesday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
