Are you ready for a natural disaster? Or your death?
You've drawn up your will, made your wishes known to family.
But, have you thought about your pets?
They are part of your family. They deserve and have earned your care even after your death. Or after a natural disaster.
We in the Southern Tier of upstate NY learned this the hard way last September.
A local pet shop (I will not mention their name within this post, but it
is part of a chain) flooded in our September 8, 2011 floods in Johnson
City caused by Tropical Storm Lee. The site had flooded at least once,
before the shop opened. The owners of the chain would have had access
to this knowledge.
I will not get into the controversy over who was responsible - the
village of Johnson City, management....but the sad and sorry fact was
that some 100 animals died in the flooded store, scared and alone,
because they were not evacuated. Another 100 or so animals were saved
and brought to a location about an hour away.
In all these months of me blogging about the flood recovery, I have
never spoken until now about the Pet Shop of Death. But I can tell you
that in the days and weeks after the flood, so many people discussed,
debated, cared about what had happened in that store on Harry L. Drive. In the swirl of people dealing with flooded basements and homes, not
having clean water to drink or a place to wash their clothes, finding
the roads they normally used closed and damaged, coping with their
displacement or the displacement of their workplaces, and everything
else that accompanies this type of disaster, people cared about those
animals.
It hurt. It still hurts.
Or, as tragically happened to a relative - she lived alone, and died
instantly in a car accident. She had two cats, both rescue cats. She
volunteered time in an animal shelter. She had a will. But she had not
made a provision for her cats. This can happen, too.
So, I would like to ask each of my readers this question, because a weather disaster can happen anywhere, at any time.
-Have you thought about, if there is a disaster, who will care for your
pets? Your chosen people might not be able to when that day comes, but
at least you have tried.
-Have you made it known, if you live alone and pass away suddenly, who
will take in and care for your pets? Not just hoped, but spoken to the
person(s) and gotten their agreement?
If you haven't, please do so today. Or, at the latest, tomorrow. Your
pets love you, look to you, depend on you. Don't let them down.
I was petless during the flood, and am still petless. But this may
change in the future, and I will make these arrangements before ever
being honored by the company of a pet, ever again.
Saturday, September 14, 2019
4 comments:
Thank you for visiting! Your comments mean a lot to me. Due to a temporary situation, your comments may not post for a day or more-I appreciate your patience.I reserve the right to delete comments if they express hate or profanity, are spam, or contain content not suitable to a family blog.
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Such an important issue, and a lot of people never give it any thought.
ReplyDeleteOne of the reasons I don't have a pet. Such a sad story.
ReplyDeleteNobody wants to care for my pet rocks.
ReplyDeleteWe live in a fire prone area of Northern California. Yes I am prepared and so are my cat and dog. They are family. Last year when the fires in Paradise Ca burned the whole dang town, my friends lost not only their homes but their animals. 2 precious cats. I kept telling them to go back and look for them. Cats are resilient. I kept checking for them at the shelters etc. Nothing. The fires were in Nov 2018. In Feb. 2019, she gets a call. One of her 2 cats had been found and they were reunited. Sadly the other cat, has of yet, not turned up. Who knows...may it will.
ReplyDeleteAbout a month ago, we had packed up ready to evacuate and a good portion of our stuff was the car carrier, litter box, litter and the dog crate. But as I said, they are family.