Dixie was lost during the Fourth of July holiday. She was last seen around Jerry Jones and Gornto Road. She is a Catahoula Leopard. Anyone with information on Dixie  can call The Valdosta Daily Times office at (229) 244-3400 and ask to speak to someone in the newsroom.

It was peaceful on Angel DeLoach’s street when her 4-year-old German Shepherd was ushered outside to the front yard to relieve himself.

The tranquility was soon blasted away by neighbors celebrating the Fourth of July with new, more fanciful versions of fireworks now available for purchase in Georgia under a law that took effect July 1.

“All of a sudden, World War II broke out, and he was gone like the wind,” the Chickamauga resident said of her dog, Blake.

Like dozens of distressed pet owners this holiday weekend, DeLoach immediately took to social media to spread the word. She found her pooch through — of all places — a Facebook group called Chickamauga Online Yard Sale. Blake had wandered eight miles from home.

While DeLoach’s story has a happy ending, many spooked pups remain on the lam, having scooted as fireworks lit the sky this past weekend.

More dogs go missing on July Fourth than any other day of the year, according to HomeAgain, a company that reunites owners with their pets using microchips embedded beneath an animal’s skin.

Even in parts of Georgia with ready access to fireworks retailers over state lines before the new law took effect, some residents reported a surge in neighborhood revelers. DeLoach, for one, said she was surprised.

But, for others, the crackles and blasts of the Independence Day light show are nothing new.

Rita Burrows, kennel manager with the Humane Society of Northwest Georgia in Dalton, said her staff urges people every year to keep their pets indoors – usually to no avail.

“If you want to hang on to your dog, they have to stay in,” she said.

The sound of a roman candle ripping through the sky, for a dog, is about as terrifying as a bad thunderstorm.

“They think if they run, they will eventually run away from the noise,” Burrows said. “So before they know it, they’re miles from home, and they don’t know how to get back.”

At least 10 dogs were picked up in Whitfield County on July 5th. Burrows said she saw at least 20 others reported missing on Facebook.

In Cairo, near Thomasville, another German Shepherd had to be rescued after somehow fleeing a fenced backyard and ending up a half-mile from home — in a fenced-off, padlocked area on Wal-Mart property.

Stories of canines bolting were plentiful elsewhere and, in many cases, heart wrenching.

Lawmakers can’t do much to make the Fourth of July more bearable for dogs.

But they’ll likely take up the fireworks law again when they reconvene next year.

One legislator, Rep. Keisha Waites, D-Atlanta, is going so far as to urge the repeal of the law, saying the revelry infringes on the rights of

 others.

Rep. Dexter Sharper, D-Valdosta, said he doesn’t want the law to go away, but he does think local governments should have a say in when – including how late – the patriotic are allowed to shoot fireworks. The law allows fireworks to start as early as 10 a.m. and run as late as 2 a.m. on July 3 and 4 and New Year’s Eve and New Years Day. Otherwise, the cutoff is midnight.

Rep. John Meadows, R-Calhoun, who leads the rules committee, said Tuesday that he expects changes to make the law more restrictive out of safety concerns. He said he doesn’t know what those tweaks will be.

Meadows, who voted against the fireworks law, said he would rather see the state raise revenues in a way other than expanding and taxing fireworks sales.

“I was a kid and I remember how stupid I was,” he said.

Jill Nolin covers the Georgia Statehouse for CNHI’s newspapers and websites. Reach her at jnolin@cnhi.com.