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Disaster Preparedness
We are closing in on the 6mon mark since Hurricane Irene and I've been looking back on the whole thing. I thought I would write out the things that helped us deal with our 2 dogs while handling the chaos following the storm after trees fell on the house.
1) Water...yeah yeah, people laugh about stocking up on water. But we did fill up A BUNCH of gallon jugs and left them in the kitchen/bathrooms. Even though we didn't have to stay without electricity we moved them into my car when we left to find a hotel and those jugs lasted a long time while we were running between hotels and back. Just one less thing to worry about as we drove through areas with a lot of damage/no electricity.
2) Dog Food. I was heading to a flyball tournament so I brought extra in case I needed to stay an extra day. I also packed up a gallon bag size for Jackson in case DH needed to go to a shelter/family. Between those 2 bags of food we were able to stay multiple nights in a hotel, family, etc without having to drag the big container of food or worry about finding a store with power. If you feed raw, having some other option available would probably be helpful as well.
3) Crates. When I travel I always keep a crate set up in the car, one for the tournament site and one for the hotel. Having these extra crates already in my car was extremely helpful. Jack and Poe spent those first few days crated in the car all day while we met with contractors, insurance adjusters, the neighbors etc. It was too dangerous to let them in the yard (lots of nails and debris) and the house was completely trashed. Having those crates on hand meant that my kids were safe and sound. We also had to stay with family that aren't really dog people so it was nice to give the kids a place to chill and keep everyone happy. I also grabbed the expen from the house so we could give them some freedom.
4) Extra clothes/toiletries. Because I was already packed for the tournament I had a bunch of extra clothes with me. It was REALLY hard to get laundry done so we basically lived out of that bag. My Dh literally left the house with the clothes on his back (we couldn't get into our MBr closet at all). It was nice to have clean clothes when we got back to the hotel (okay, that one was for us, not the dogs lol).
5) Expectations. NEVER assume your pets will act the same way in an emergency as they normally do. Jackson was extremely protective of DH after the storm and guarded him from everyone for a bit (they were home alone together during the worst of it). I would normally not expect that from him. While Poe's recall isn't exactly 100% she never bolts from the house/car. I was away at a friend's house and frantically packing my car so I could come home when Poe bolted out of the door and into the street. My highly trained sport dog completely forgot every bit of recall training and all of the years of calm handling went out the window while I panicked over what was happening at home. Stressed owners and stressed dogs are not a good combo. I would suggest that you double up on restraint and always have control of exits/leashes/etc. Even if your normally doesn't do things like bolt and has a reliable recall be more aware and take precautions about things like bolting through doors, backing out of collars, pulling the leash out of your hand, running off etc.
6) ID. I always put my cell number on my tags (or with microchip info). We had to travel over an hour to find a hotel and our power was out at home. If one of the dogs did get loose we could have still been reached. The local emergency shelter that allowed dogs requested vaccination records so I had those on hand as well. We didn't end up needing them but if one of the dogs was picked up by animal control we could have easily proved that they belonged to us while the power was out at the vet/home.
7) Treats/toys. Silly I know, but even the night after the storm my two were playing like crazies. The toys and kong were quite a stress reliever for both of them. We also lost out on our nightly play time in our yard and the dog park was damaged as well. We ended up picking up a 50ft long line and we were able to work Poe at local fields without worrying.
So my dog disaster kit:
water
food
extra leashes/long line
treats
Kong/toys
Vaccination Record
Picture of your pet: computer systems might be down so if you need to look for your pet you will probably need to do it face to face and a picture can help strangers let you know if they've seen them.
Poop bags (believe me...you will go through these bad boys lol)
Any medications
Crate
All in all my guys have handled this whole experience better than we have. A little bit of planning made the days (hell week) immediately after the storm a little easier to handle. I'll admit that they got a bit left behind during that time but we made sure they got their play time, got their snuggles and were happy. We were lucky in that we travel with them just about every weekend so the bouncing from hotels and family was fairly normal for them. I hope you will never need this information but thought I could lay it out in case you are even in an emergency.
Poe: Here we go once again with the "I was a wild stray..." story. Blah blah blah *eye roll*
Blog: The Misadventures of Jackson and Poe
Re: Disaster Preparedness
Whoa...holy novel batman.
Poe: Here we go once again with the "I was a wild stray..." story. Blah blah blah *eye roll*
Blog: The Misadventures of Jackson and Poe
That's an awesome list - thank you!
I now feel horribly unprepared, especially since our main threat is tornadoes that have little to no warning, unlike hurricanes.
Yeah, I was lucky to have some advanced notice. But this really works for the time after while you are dealing with everything else. Somethings we grabbed after the storm but before we left for the hotel so while you can't be prepared for everything having things like vet records, bottled water, easy to grab bags (I got a huge cloth shopping bag from walmart and it hold so much stuff, easy to pack and folds up really small when not in use) in an easy to remember place can go a long way.
Poe: Here we go once again with the "I was a wild stray..." story. Blah blah blah *eye roll*
Blog: The Misadventures of Jackson and Poe
-- Thoughts become things, choose the good ones! --
Great reminder. I keep a med kit handy, but I need to add some first aid stuff to it for a quick grab and run. I'd also include lots of towels and rags and maybe NM.
Oh yeah they were useful! They had to go everywhere with us so we were picking up poop like crazy, the hotel, store parking lots, family's houses, etc.
I also forgot to add...I already had towels, paper towels and a sheet in my car for the tournament but we used all of them. Everything was muddy and my dogs also like to lie down on something familiar so if I needed them out of the way I just laid a towel down and told them to "go mat". We were filthy so the paper towels and wet wipes helped with the grim and sweat. And if you have a dog that barks in strange situations a sheet over the crate can sometimes help quiet them down and encourage them to sleep. Ever since we got Poe we've covered her crate at tournaments and it really helps.
Poe: Here we go once again with the "I was a wild stray..." story. Blah blah blah *eye roll*
Blog: The Misadventures of Jackson and Poe