Severe Weather:

I have a question: When you have severe weather in the area but cannot be at home what do you do to keep your kitties safe?
I have never really had to worry about it because we have lived close to family members that can come get them if they need to. But now we are 2 hours from everyone, and being under tornado watches all day but stuck at work has me wondering!

There's not really much that can be done when we're not home. It's upsetting to think of, but that's the fact of the matter.
I just have to hope that their natural instinct to hide under things helps them.

If one has a basement or storm room it might be worth trying training to make the cats associate siren sounds and to go to those areas. Though if there was a fire that training could backfire.

I have a key on file with my petsitter's. They are so reliable and I can call at a moments notice if I ever need help. I am usually never far from home though, so don't think I would ever need to call.

I dont think we can even hear any sirens from our house... lol go figure... we have never really had that much of a threat of tornado's. I know if we are home they will be fine, into the cat carrier they will go and to the basement with us, but they arent allowed in the basement because its a mostly unfinished garage, and very very very not pet safe. I think we may talk to our neighbors and make sure they at least have contact info for us incase something were to happen!
Mary (Cruisermaiden) and I are exchanging pet sitting services, but she is in the middle of the ocean right now, and our other cat sitter works with Gary...

You should try finishing out that basement. If there really is mold down there it can affect the air quality in the rest of your home.
You wouldn't want anyone (including the cats) to turn up with respiratory issues from it.

If you can't hear the sirens from your house you need to go get a weather radio. They cost$ 25-30 and everyone in high risk tornado areas should have one. ( you never know when there will be a warning at 1-3 in the morning. I've been through that before and there was little warning other than the alarm blarring on the weather radio that woke us)

Th radios have annoying but specific alarms that a cat could learn to recognize. I wouldn't rely on neighbors who may panic or on someone across town who may not be able or want to go out in pre-tornado weather. Here that means hail, hard rain, and even dangerous straightline winds.

theres no mold or anything, we have had the house checked and had new sealer put on the bricks before we bought the house just over a year ago. And by unfinished I mean, there isnt much livable space down there. There is the bar room and the rest is open and used for car work and has lots of tools, paints, cleaners etc. All are sealed and on shelves but its still not a place I want the boys exploring. It is a 1 car garage+ large work shop. (actually so large we can fit 2 cars in the 1 car garage... the MG is just pulled up into the work shop! The joys of a little car!)

Maybe consider adding a dividing wall at one end near the stairs? Is your washer and dryer down there? Or anything you'd like to store? It would be a good idea, too, if you would seek shelter down there to have a smaller reinforced area that wouldn't leave you exposed to paint can and tool shrapnel if you know what I mean.

Otherwise you have to hope they have somewhere to hide at the safer end of the house or some interior closest.
When/if a tornado bears down the air pressure changes and the wind easily be heard by a cat. Hopefully that sends most cats (and other animals) into hiding.

True. No our W&D are in out kitchen which I hate but love... I wouldnt want to go up and down those steep stairs for every laundry load! LOL!
For emergency shelter right now we have the bathroom down there (which is unfinished) that is under the stairs. may have to discuss this with gary some!

Sounds like an idea. Let us know if you two decide to do something and get started on it. Before and after pictures are always interesting!
This way if it's sectioned a bit you could have a cat door in the door to the basement and they could run down there. You could even keep a spare litter box, food (pet and a bit of human food), water, and a first aid kit down there should the worst happen.

haha I will! I am still trying to talk him into letting me repaint! Right now everything is "trying to sell the house neutral" and I like color!
Although I have already told him, if he builds a new garage then I am getting a dog! That sounds like a fair trade off doesnt it?

^ That depends. Does getting a dog mean he'll need to build a fence for it, too? It you two can afford it, there's space, and no more work on him then I think it sounds fair.

I guess I'm fortunate because I live in a basement apartment. It's an old building that was built like a tank (the exterior walls have a layer of bricks followed by a layer of cinder blocks), so there's probably no place safer that's easily available to me. I did leave the windows shut this morning, even though it was nearly 70 out. Hopefully, that will keep things a little quieter and not scare the kitties as much. I have a big closet that's right in the middle of the building that I left the door open to. If they get really freaked out, they can hide in there in the corner.

I guess if I couldn't be home I could put their supplies in my master bedroom closet. It's the best place for us to take shelter in the house. They probably wouldn't be too happy with me though! I'm glad to be a stay-at-home mom now. I used to think of stuff like this when it was stormy and I was at work!

Thunder and lightning never bothered Lynxx . Except 1 really severe storm we had in August of 2005. I was home with him during that storm. We both freaked, he eventually left me alone in the hallway while he ran and hid under my bed

We only had a couple of thunder storms when Luna and Midnight first came here. They both freaked. Luna hid under my bed. Midnight stayed in my arms. We had another thunder storm a week or 2 ago. Midnight slept through it, Luna flew around the house running under my bed and my parents bed.

I don't think us being home during the storms, or not being home during the storms this Summer will matter to Luna. She doesn't come to us for comfort, we were able to calm her down. She had to calm down on her own in her hiding places. I'm not sure if Midnight will be bothered by storms anymore. He didn't wake up for the last 1, and the thunder was very loud.

We made it through the day without too much damage which is good. Although I did see my first funnel cloud... seesh! It got pretty scary for a while! But the bad problem was the rain! We got about 3 inches very very quickly this afternoon! It caused a lot of flooding, many main roads to be closed down, and debris everywhere! We came home to about 3 inches of water in the garage that had seeped in because the ground was already so saturated from rain on Friday and Saturday!
Heres a link to a news report from today! This is about 5 minutes from the house. We are right on the edge of Fountain City.

I think when it comes to tornados and such cats have good instincts and would probably get under a chair where they would be safe.

Originally Posted by capt_jordi

We made it through the day without too much damage which is good. Although I did see my first funnel cloud... seesh! It got pretty scary for a while! But the bad problem was the rain! We got about 3 inches very very quickly this afternoon! It caused a lot of flooding, many main roads to be closed down, and debris everywhere! We came home to about 3 inches of water in the garage that had seeped in because the ground was already so saturated from rain on Friday and Saturday!
Heres a link to a news report from today! This is about 5 minutes from the house. We are right on the edge of Fountain City.

Click to expand...

Yeah, it was crazy. My parents said their rain gauge recorded 5 inches yesterday. I had my own personal lake in my office. It just rained so hard that the drain outside of my front door was overwhelmed and backed up under the door. I suspect that the cats loved it. By the time I got home, the water had receded and I just had wet carpet. Nothing was damaged, but I had to move everything out of the office and pull up the carpet, which was a big pain.