Disaster planning for your pets

Greetings,

As many of you know, my family was affected by the recent fires.

We were personally not prepared for a fire, however we were prepared and had stored in a "Mega Bin" all the essentials in case of an earthquake.

One of the things that we did not take into consideration in our earthquake survival bin were supplies for our animal family.

This web site focuses solely on pet essentials in case of a disaster.

When we evacuated, it was easy to get our dog out quickly and put her in the car, but we could not find our cat for several days and did not know if she was in the house at the time or not.

Fortunately, we got her back after three long days of sadness and uncertainty of her whereabouts.

We also did not have the basic provisions for our dog like her bowl, food, leash and grooming supplies, or any medication that she needed.

I can say from experience that our dog did go through her own traumatic experience, as she did not stop breathing (panting) heavily for three days, and was in fact very stressed, just as we as humans were.

If you have pets, please visit this site to educate yourselves on how to prepare your survival kit for your pet(s).

It's one thing to Be Prepared for yourselves and another for your pets.

Pets offer families unconditional love and attention - something we as humans sometimes forget we need to give to one another as humans.

I wish I had taken our pets needs into consideration when we assembled our earthquake bin, as it would have made it easier for us to provide the same comfort to them as we did for ourselves.

If you don't already have a disaster preparedness plan and Survival Bin in place, simply remember the Scout motto of Being Prepared.

Hope this helps should a disaster occur in the future.

Forever a Scout
Les Salay
Cub/Troop Master - Unit 921
Unit Commissioner
scoutingus@aol.com