Fireworks are beautiful to look at, but they can be scary for our pets. The bangs and booms are hard on their sensitive hearing, and even the calmest pet can get upset by the unfamiliar loud noises.

To help your pet cope with the noise from Fourth of July fireworks, and reduce the chance that it runs away, Regional Animal Services of King County offers these tips:

• Keep your pet secured indoors in the quietest room of your home while fireworks are audible. You can also use soothing music or television as a distraction. Some pets will stay calmer when placed in a secure crate in a darkened, quiet room.
• If your pet is normally kept outside, bring them inside or put them in a well-ventilated garage or shed or in a basement while fireworks are going off.
• Make sure your pet has at least two forms of identification. This can be a pet license and personalized tag, a license and a microchip, or all three (license, tag, and microchip). Pets with ID have a much greater chance of being returned to their owners.
• Don’t assume that your pet won’t react just because you haven’t had problems in the past. Sometimes, pets become sensitive to loud noises later in life.
• If your pet is lost, check in person at all local shelters, and check back often. It may take some time before spooked pets are brought to shelters.

If your pet does manage to escape, RASKC is ready to help.

The King County Pet Adoption Center in Kent will be open for regular business hours after the holiday to help owners looking for their missing pets. Staff and volunteers can help owners search the stray pet kennels and file a missing pet report.

Owners of missing pets can also call the RASKC stray hotline at 206-296-3936 to hear a list of the pets picked up by animal control officers each day.

For more help, check out our Lost Pets information at kingcounty.gov/LostAPet. If you’ve found a stray pet, visit our Found Pets page at kingcounty.gov/FoundAPet.