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Do You Have a Plan?

post #1 of 14
1/25/10 at 7:17am
Thread Starter 
Ten years ago my apartment caught on fire. I had four cats at the time. It was a nightmare because I didn't have an emergency plan. I managed to take two cats out with me right away. After only seconds the house was almost totally engulfed. And of course, yours truly went back in to get my other two cats who were hiding under the bed. It took several trips because I couldnt breath, but I managed to get all my cats out. The littlest one, Patches, had her claws so embedded into the carpet that I broke her little leg trying to free her. From that day I have always had a plan of escape. Now that it is just Bella and me it is easier. Does anyone have a plan? Fire? Tornado, Earthquake,Flood? What will you do with your cats?
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post #2 of 14
1/25/10 at 8:05am
Gosh that's awful to think of poor Patches leg being broken. I can totally see how that could happen though. At least you got them all out.
Our plan consists of having the two carrriers always assembled and within easy reach. I guess we would take them down and stash them in the car.
This reminds me, the fire alarm guy is coming this week to test the building alarms. Holy guacamole, those alarms are loud!! I want to put the cats in their room so they freak out less.
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post #3 of 14
1/25/10 at 9:03am
Good question for people to think about.

We have an attached cat shelter to the rear of the house accessable by a cat door. We would shoo them through and then they would be outside. From there,take one by one to the garage which is metal, with a metal roof plus it is detatched.

Scarry thought.
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post #4 of 14
1/25/10 at 9:43am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bellaandme View Post
Ten years ago my apartment caught on fire. I had four cats at the time. It was a nightmare because I didn't have an emergency plan. I managed to take two cats out with me right away. After only seconds the house was almost totally engulfed. And of course, yours truly went back in to get my other two cats who were hiding under the bed. It took several trips because I couldnt breath, but I managed to get all my cats out. The littlest one, Patches, had her claws so embedded into the carpet that I broke her little leg trying to free her. From that day I have always had a plan of escape. Now that it is just Bella and me it is easier. Does anyone have a plan? Fire? Tornado, Earthquake,Flood? What will you do with your cats?

I thought about that a month ago, but I cannot figure something out.
My condo has false alarm all the time, like once a month. I had my kittens for 3 months only, the first time it happened, we did not have a carrier, and we try to fit them back into the small paper carrier we got when we adopted them. They were too big and freaked out. Then we bought them extra larger carrier.

We have the carrier near the cat condo all the time will comfy towels, so sometimes they sleep in it too. When the firm alarm goes off, if we are at home, we put the cats into the carrier and bring them out.

What I am worried is that if we are not at home.... We close all the windows because they are indoor cats. Then when there is a fire, they have no way out. I am not sure if the firefighters will go get them either. I thought about putting a sign at the door saying I have 2 cats inside. Is there a better way?
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post #5 of 14
1/25/10 at 10:25am
I have 2 carriers for the cats I can stuff Herc and GiGi into the soft sided one and Fatman into the big hard one and I know exactly where the carriers are at if I ever needed to get one in an emergency. Also it helps that if a fire happened at night I know where everyone sleeps (we all have a well established routine) so I know where I need to go to get everyone out and I also know there number two spots if their number one spot isnt good enough. We also have those stickers EVERYWHERE. Two on the sliding glass doors, one on the bay window, another on the screen door and another on the back door by the bedroom so anyone trying to get into the house knows that we have 3 cats and a dog...
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post #6 of 14
1/25/10 at 12:16pm
Good thread. Don't they make stickers you can stick on your window that say how many animals inside? Anyone know where to get those?

Our plan, for now, is I grab Abbey and Jon grabs Cammy. We get the carriers on the way out if possible. Not sure what to do when the baby is born. I guess one will be responsible for the cats, and one will be responsible for the baby.
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post #7 of 14
1/25/10 at 12:26pm
I would like those stickers, too.

I guess it depends on when and where the fire started. It would probably be on this (west) side of the house since that's where the major appliances are. The bedrooms are on the east side of the house. Given that the cats sleep with us at night my plan would be to shut the bedroom door to buy some time and just to start packing them out the windows and put them all in the backyard (catproofed) as far away from the house as possible. We have no carpet, so if any went under the bed we could easily roll it.

The geckos are in the middle of the house and their heating is a fire risk itself. I don't believe I'd have any luck getting them out.

Tornado - I'm not too worried as the layout of the town pushes them south. But we do not have a shelter here, nor do we have an interior room with no windows. The living room closet would probably be the best we could do if we couldn't get out, and they'd be in there with us.

I'm not in a flood area and the earthquakes that hit usually do so further south or in the central part of the state. Those are only around a 4.0 (recent one a few days ago was a 4.0).
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post #8 of 14
1/25/10 at 12:43pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by strange_wings View Post
I would like those stickers, too.
http://www.aspca.org/about-us/free-a...fety-pack.html

Found that!
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post #9 of 14
1/25/10 at 2:40pm
Thread Starter 
yes, you can get those window stickers from the HS, your vet, Petsmart, or Walmart. I didn't have stickers ten years ago. I pleaded with a fireman to help my cats and he refused. I keep catnip and some spray for the inside of the carrier to calm her down. There is always a chance something could happen while I am away from home. That's where my faith has to step in.I also have partial evacuation drills. I have gone through the steps of putting Bella in the carrier and taking her out again.. We've done it enough times now that she could not care less. The main thing is for us to stay calm through the whole thing. You know how easily they pick up on our emotions. I also have a small bag packed with a first aide kit, cat food and water. It seems like alot to carry for you multi-cat families, though, doesn't it...
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post #10 of 14
1/27/10 at 10:29pm
I don't strictly have a plan BUT I made sure that I have enough carriers for all my pets, and that I know where the carriers are and can get to them quickly if needed. I have "emergency pet rescue" stickers on the doors of the house.

I also keep most of my cats in the room with me at night. I started this because when they were kittens they would get into mischief if left alone at night with the run of the house. When they got older I kept it up because one of my family members leaves the house very early in the morning and a few times one of the kittens almost ran out the door when she left... She's not good about watching out for that and they are too curious about the doors.

I recently was thinking about it and realized that if there was an emergency while I was sleeping and I had to get the cats out of the house immediately there is no way I would be able to catch them all if they were all running loose in the house.
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post #11 of 14
1/28/10 at 5:03am
I have two of those nylon pop out carriers next to the wall in my living room. In one is a container with a month worth of all their meds, and a picture of each cat, with name, age and special needs on it.

I keep my car unlocked, in my driveway, so I can put them right in there, should I need to get them out fast.
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post #12 of 14
1/28/10 at 6:44am
Great thread. We don't really have a plan, but now I am going to make one!
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post #13 of 14
1/28/10 at 7:16pm
We don't have "a plan". I've been meaning to, but I really need to sit down and put it together.

With [currently] 1 small dog, 4 kitties, 4 pet rats, and 4 house bunnies....uhm....I've got a lot to plan out. When I have the money, I need to buy carriers for every animal...or at least 2 larger carriers for 2 cats to each go in together and then 3 more bunny carriers. Rats can all go in a carrier together, but the bunnies need to go into separate ones (they aren't bonded). That's 7 carriers....I wonder how we'd even get them in the car!!
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post #14 of 14
1/28/10 at 10:02pm
I live in a high risk bushfire area so we have a bushfire plan, which would probably work as a house fire plan.

I have copies of vaccination records (in case cats need boarding), their registrations and pedigrees stored at mums, plus food, litter etc. at her house too and another lot of supplies in the boot of my car - that crate also has the vaccinations etc. saved on a USB stick.

Carriers are in the lounge room on the cat show trolley so they can all be moved at once and on days rated catastrophic for bushfire the cats are kept in one room so I'm not chasing anyone when seconds count.
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