Pets and emergencies

taram

My housemate is visiting her boyfriend in Japan at the moment, and they're safe, but when the tsunami warning went off they put his pets in her rental car and drove, leaving everything behind as they couldn't fit anything but the dogs and themselves.

I woke up to the fire alarm going off this morning and I honestly didn't give a damn about the fact I was in my underwear :eek: but I ran downstairs to get the animals out. Grabbed the dog, literally threw him out the door, threw the boy guinea pigs into the top floor of the girl's wheely cage, shoved it out the french doors. Only then did I realise it It was the next door neighbour's bonfire smoke going in our kitchen window that set it off, but I didn't know that until I was in the garden half naked :P These french doors would have been my nearest exit anyway, so I would have only been in for another minute if I had just gone out without the animals.

Neither of my housemates were home, one is grateful that in that situation her dog would be saved, but the other said I should have thought of my own safety first.

Lots of stories of people who've died saving dogs from rivers/ice lakes, though in that case I'd not risk it, my dog used to be a much better swimmer than I was!

What do ye think? Would ye risk yourself for your pets?

Shanao

I know I would always save my own pets, no matter what risk I was putting myself at, but never knew just what i would do if it was an animal beyond my own, until last summer. Quite possibly the stupidest thing I've ever done, but I had done it before I had even thought about it. Was out walking on my own and saw a car ahead go over a pidgeon. The pidgeon was okay, but couldn't seem to fly. Next thing on the road however, was an artic, and I didn't even pause; I ran straight out in front of it, grabbed the bird and dived onto the other side of the road. Why, I have no idea, I guess I just didn't want to see it get killed. Turns out it was a lost racer from Dublin who had hurt its wing and about three days later, it was on its way back to its owner thanks to help from the local racers.

Yeah, it was incredibly stupid, beyond stupid, I know that well, but I'm pretty sure I'll probably do something like it again. I've gotten into the middle of dog fights to pull dogs apart even though I could have been bitten and I swam out of my depth to pull my old dog to safety after she was caught in a river current. I'd do the same for them what I would do for another person.

The Sweeper

I have an emergency kit for the animals, and an emergency plan. (Bushfire country - unless you're gonna leave them behind, you gotta have one.)

Three cages, two cats apiece; the dog in the back of the car. During fire season there's a bag of litter and a tray that sit in the back of the car all the time, along with a bag that contains dishes and other bits and pieces - plastic water bowl, so on.

Then in a bag by the door there are cans of food and dry food for all animals and bottles of water for humans and animals. Should conceivably be ready to clear out within 5 mins.

For internal house fires, daytime the worry would be the cats if I weren't home, so am sticking a 'please save my pets' sticker on the front window of the house (to alert the fire service that there are animals inside). The dog is in his run during the day.

If we got a fire alert while I was out during the day you wouldn't stop me getting back to collect the animals. Plus I've discussed it with my boss in work that I'm not comfortable travelling for work on a high or catastrophic fire danger index day because I need to be near home to evacuate and it's not a problem.