With every fireworks blast Marion Esmiol heard on the Fourth of July, she wondered where her 16-pound black cockapoo had run off to the night before.
At the first sound of a pre-holiday fireworks show at Aloha Tower Marketplace where she had been taken, 4-year-old Meli took off like a shot, said Esmiol’s daughter, Lisa.
"From the very first bang, the first firework, she just bolted," Lisa Esmiol said Sunday. "She had a leash on and a harness, and she ran away so fast."
She said she has since heard of other families hoping to find pets that ran away because of fireworks. She hopes that people will be on the lookout for them.
"There are pets out there right now who have owners who are really looking for them," she said. "We’re hoping people don’t just fall in love and take them, (that) they realize that they have families that love them."
At least two people posted on the website Craigslist that they were looking for dogs that ran away because of fireworks, one of them a mixed brindle lost at Ala Moana Beach Park. Another Craigslist posting said the family’s female pointer had been found after she escaped from her kennel during the fireworks show in Kailua.
Lisa Esmiol said she hopes people will learn from her experience and cling tightly to their animals’ leashes at fireworks shows.
"For dogs it’s not something fun," she said. "It can be really scary for them."
The Hawaiian Humane Society recommends against taking pets to fireworks displays, suggesting instead that they be kept in a safe place indoors.
Owners have a better chance of recovering a lost pet if it has identification on its collar or an implanted ID chip, the society says.
The society encourages people to turn in found animals, day or night, to its shelter at 2700 Waialae Ave. in Moiliili. More information about how to drop off, report or locate lost animals can be found at hawaiianhumane.org/lostandfound or by calling 946-2187.
