A devastated dog owner wants new restrictions on fireworks after her pet was "frightened to death".
Maxine Williams, 49, who runs the Crown and Liver pub in Ewloe, Flintshire, found her pure-bred Segugio Italiano named Bronson dead on November 4 this year after he was spooked by fireworks, reports North Wales Live.
As this year’s Bonfire Night fell on a Saturday, Maxine had booked the night off from working at the pub to be with Bronson at her home in Sandycroft as she expected fireworks to bother him, and worked the night before instead.
Returning home from her Friday night shift to find the patio door open, she said: “Bronson was nowhere to be seen and I thought someone might have taken him.”
Panicked, Maxine was able with the help of friends and neighbours to determine that the dog had been spooked by a fireworks display earlier in the evening.
He had opened a lounge door, pressed down the patio door handle and leapt over a six foot garden fence.
Bronson had been spotted by motorists running along a busy road towards an Airbus complex, but they were unable to stop him before he disappeared across farmland into woods.
Maxine meanwhile posted an appeal on Facebook, and even received an erroneous phone call at around 10pm from a man pretending to have found the dog in search of a cash reward.
“Luckily I’d been warned by Lost Dogs that a man was reading the appeals and blackmailing owners.", Maxine said.
But an unfortunately true call came the following morning when a stranger informed her Bronson had been found in a ditch between Penyffordd and Dobshill five miles away.
He appeared to have been hit by a car. Too upset to view him herself, Maxine asked her daughter to take him to the crematorium and took the next two days off work.
She had since shared her heartbreak at her loss and paid tribute to the dog, saying: "I can’t tell you how much Bronson’s death has broken my heart.
"He was everything to me. He lived like a lord but he was kind and gentle. People met him always said how special he was."
As a young grandmother, Maxine appreciates the sense of wonder her grandchildren see in fireworks, and she doesn’t want to deprive them. - but believes they should be restricted to Bonfire Night for the sake of pet owners.
"Fireworks now start weeks before November 5 and often continue for days afterwards," she said.
"If they went off just one night, at least owners of affected dogs would know when to be available to give them support."