Evacuation at 2am.... you would take your kitties right?

Last night the fire alarm went off in my apartment building in the middle of the night, it had never happened before. I jumped out of bed and before I even had pants on I was yelling to my brother and boyfriend to get the cat carrier, and down we decended 14 floors, siamese in hand.

When I got down there was about 20 other people with pets and a conversation started with those around us, who were shocked we evacuated our pets!!!

I know it was unlikely that anything would stop us from getting back in or that there was a fire bad enough to actually cause damage to my apartment, and we were alloud in about an hour later. But I have heard of buildings where huge fires started and even people whose apartments weren't affected were not allowed back in for over a week and their pets were left there for that time with no food or water or anything! The thought of that happening is horrifying to me (or of course the worse alternative if there was a huge fire)
Turns out for us some pot smokers set their balcony on fire....

WOuld you evacuate your pets?

Yes!

August 2007, we were woken at 6:00am in our townhouse by our landlord and the National Guard telling us we had 5 minutes to evacuate, we were getting flooded and when I looked out the patio door, I could see the water coming towards our door The first thing I did before even getting dressed, was grabbed the carrier from the front closet, put them both in there, grabbed their food and put them in the car, then I went and put on clothes, grabbed enough clothing for one day and left. There were other people in apartments that didn't get their pets and they were unable to get them for two-three days None of us could get into our houses/apartments for over a week, but luckily our landord went back and got all the pets. I just felt better knowing that my babies were safe with me and not having to deal with strangers and and all that stress

So, yes, I would and did get my pets in an evacuation, no matter what time!

Lets put it this way....the one time that we evacuated our mobile home for a tornado warning without the kitties, we almost lost the building and all the kitties....soooo, now, any time that we evacuate ALL the kitties are packed to go. We have learned one thing though? since one of our kits goes under the bed when the carriers are moved (even if they've been sleeping in them), we close all the bedroom doors before we rattle the carriers!

In a heart beat i would, for the reason you said, fear of them going hungry / thirsty if we wernt allowed to go back into our flat

thanks to God you´re all right....

Originally Posted by lmunsie

siamese in hand.

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God bless you!...

Afortunately I NEVER had that situation, BUT you don´t to doubth that If I need to go at the streets only in underwear carrying my fur-babies, I DON´T CARE!

OF COURSE they pass first than I!...

Yep, and I have carted the 5 of them out before when someone set a fire in the garbage chute. Scully was in his element with everyone cooing over the big kitty and thought it was great fun and Autumn had her sights set on a parrot that a fireman got a towel from someone's apartment for me to cover her carrier

I think that people who don't have or have ever had pets just simply don't understand that to people that do, those pets are just as much a part of their family as anyone else, and of course they'd take them

A couple of years ago, I smelled natural gas and called Consumers Energy (they had moved my gas meter earlier in the day, from my basement to outside.) They told me to immediately evacuate...don't turn on any lights, use the phone again, run water (pilot light), or even use the garage door opener. I had to go into my furnace room to get two of my cat carriers. I put the harness on Cleo, and threw Maggie & Lola in their carriers, and ran like crazy to across the street, where I called my parents on my cell. Fortunately, there was no gas leak, just the residual gas from moving the meter. I could NEVER leave my girls...even if it were a danger to myself to try to evacuate them too! I now keep the carriers in a much easier to access location, in case I ever need to evacuate again!

of course I would take my pets with me. In fact one time My house was broken into and I wasn't sure if they were still in their or not I ran in grabbed my pets and ran out again and called the cops. Thankfully they were not still in the house but I didn't want something bad to happen to my animals just in case.

I found out a month ago my old place caught fire and burned.
I am so glad we did not live there anymore because I may have been at work at that time and my husband would have been there around taht time waiting for me.
11 Cats were missing in that fire.
I have no idea if they were found but my old appartment was one of the ones that burned.
I would grave the cats before anything else.
This was the place I live over 3 years ago.
I just hope all my old friends there did not lose any cats.

If I had the chance I would. I have actually been in those circumstances where I could not evacuate them and all but 1 died. It was the most horrible feeling in the world.

This is a thought that really bothers me. I've never been in a position where I've had to evacuate my home, so I haven't faced this situation. But I have wondered, how on Earth would I manage my 3 children and 5 cat carriers???

If I just had to quickly load them into the car that would be one thing, but in our area the major natural disaster threat is from tornados. We don't have a basement, but our neighborhood has several storm shelters. Of course, pets aren't supposed to be allowed inside the shelters, but I imagine my neighbors would still let me in if I showed up with my kitties. However, it's the getting there with all the kids and 5 carriers during a major storm that frightens me.

My pets are like kids to me, I couldn't leave them. They both had to cram into one medium size carrier, I saw a couple people with cats craddled in their arms, I didn't envy those people but I still admired them for bringing their pets out. I just couldn't forgive myself if something did happen...... even though they were less then impressed with the whole situation Actually though, they were better then I thought they would be with all the alarms and trucks, cello only protested a couple times, and once we got upstairs again they didn't hide....... I'm very proud of my babies for being so good in an emergency!

Of course I would. I keep cat carriers on each floor of our house to be sure that there's always one at hand just in case of a fire or some other emergency. Hopefully I'll never need them. Last summer when we had tornadoes in the area it was me, DH, and both cats in the bathroom downstairs with the radio.

I guess I see keeping them as safe as possible in an emergency as part of the responsibility I accepted when I made the decision to have pets.

Yup!! Most definately!!

We just had a security alarm put in with a direct line to fire department because DH was afraid if there was a fire the furkids might not get out. My neighbor is a fire fighter so she has given us a sign to put in window with how many and what kind of pets we have in the house.

Originally Posted by catloverin_ks

Yup!! Most definately!!

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I definitely would. Around No. CA, we get evacuation alerts for floods and fires but where I live doesn't flood. We would get warning for big fires.

However, with earthquakes, we would get no warning since they cannot predict them yet.

I do, however, think that it would be much harder to capture my free-flying budgies to get into their cages than to get Butzie to come with us.

Cat...keys...wallet, in that order.

My cats would be the first ones out. And it's never hard to get them to leave. They love being outside. All I have to do is open the door.

I absolutely would take my cat with me! I live in CA, and we have earthquakes... I live right on a fault (one that is supposed to be active and parellels the San Andreas). One concern for me is having enough supplies in case of an earthquake.

I don't know how many of you have emergency supply kits in your home or car... (like water, blankets, food, etc.) but I would put some kitty food in there too!