A viewer asks: “Why are pets so triggered by fireworks? Is it karmic?” What can we tell her?

This aversion to unexpected loud noises can be readily triggered in animals who, by their very nature and instinct, are easily alarmed by unexpected sounds. This is part of their makeup and has survival value in a world where there are many predators, but you are seeing intuitively there is also a component of karmic consequences from prior life experience, especially among companion animals who have lived close to humans for centuries and are often enveloped in acts of war, and have to somehow cope with all of the stress and carnage they witness, and may well have been hurt or killed because of being in harm’s way. So hearing the sounds of explosions can, indeed, stir up karmic rumblings of such prior trauma and add to the stress caused.