[RildFiemodo]

Mine would go with me. Period. If I had to steal my neighbor's extra pickup so the ladies wouldn't fight being crammed into the back of my Honda, so be it.

[Ternneowns]

We're on the screwed list. I don't drive. No family out here. I guess we'll all die together.

[carletoxtrs]

I cannot imagine being afraid of anything to the point of where I would leave my child behind... maybe it's just the "mom" in me, but regardless, if my child refused to leave without their pet, I'd bite the bullet and allow what ever it was in my vehicle..... like, I'm not big on spiders or alligators, but if they were my childs' pet (even my grown children), and wouldn't leave without them, if they could cage or muzzle them, I might be scared to death, but they could sit in the back seat and supervise their little teeth and make sure they stayed away from me, then I'd let them bring them... Who am I kidding, I'd let them bring them, even if they had to sit in the seat beside me showing me their pearly whites... I'd just need Valium afterward.

Me too.

I can't imagine knowing that there is life threatening danger coming and that I left another living thing behind to suffer. Even if it was a great, big scary, ugly tarantula (but that would belong to someone else, because I sure as hell wouldn't have one).

I'm probably motivated by selfishness....I wouldn't be able to live with myself.

[eladiopsislab]

we are in the tail end or tornado ally, my neighbor has a basement and said we and the dogs are welcome there any time there is a threat of a tornado, I know back when we had the earthquake (the epicenter was a mear 6 miles from my house) we were freaken out because the dogs were not inside since it was the middle of the night (and there was no warning...if there ever is with an earthquake I donno 1st one we ever had in like 70+ years) but all was well. I would never leave my dogs, I would find a way to keep them with me if that be stay behind or have my parents bring there boat 150 miles down here to get me (if it was a flood...they would do it too)

[expomeHattePe]

Since my dogs sort of are my family I would fine a way to take them with me or stay with them. The only other family in my house is my brother and he loves them as much as I do. I do have family spread through out the country who would be willing to accept me and my dogs.

[joanasevilyboaz]

Me and my family's safety would come first. IF I had the option to bring my dogs I would obviously, but if it was them or my family...

I dont know what would happen to them.

That is kind of where I am. I would not put my family in jeopardy over it. But I would do everything in my power to make sure the dog goes with us.

[eladiopsislab]

That is kind of where I am. I would not put my family in jeopardy over it. But I would do everything in my power to make sure the dog goes with us.

yea if I had family (meaning kids) it would be different, its just my fiance and I then the dogs so I know him, he would stay with Abby I am sure, and if he did not I would say heck with you I'm staying with my heart dog

[VladFal]

Great topic ! I like to be prepared, we have 2 AB'S and 1 ABBB. In the back room i keep a backpack with extra leashes, collars and some very basic first aid supplies. All 3 dogs eat raw, so stopping for chicken , beef etc wouldnt be a problem. So it the SHTF, it wouldnt take more than a minute or 2 to round up the dogs and jump in the car.

[Intockatt]

I have always wanted to play Apocalypse.Always have at least 20 galons of water on hand a freezer full of meat couple cases of mre`s ,back up generator with 20 gallons of gas. enough guns and ammo to arm a third world country,my bow and arrows,Bass boat, a couple wheel drives,my quads.Since I live in california it would be a sunami or earth quake.I think we would do just fine.

[7HlBQS8j]

I would have to bring them with me. I'd crate all 3 cats and Fiasco. Saint and Brutus are great in the car so those two would be in the floorboard and we'd head off to somewhere safer. I drive a Honda Civic so it'd be a tight squeeze but we've done it before! Chaotic but semi-manageable.

If some kind of severe natural disaster struck and I could only take one dog it would def. be Brutus. I know I go on and on about how bad his separation anxiety is but I feel the same way towards him.

[FredderiK]

During Katrina, we had no children and were only under a voluntary evacuation. But not only do most places not allow dogs, very very few allow "pit bulls"....especially a lot of them. Trying to evacuate during that time was just not an option.

Now that I have 3 young children, my decisions have much more at stake. I will do whatever the heck I could to get me, my family, and my animals out of there, but as much as this hurts to say, at the end of the day I have to do what I have to do to keep my children and myself alive and safe. If it comes down to putting my children at severe risk in order to not leave the animals or leaving the animals to save my children, I will take my children.

Since I don't live as far south as I used to and not in danger of floods, the reality of something like this ever happening is slim to none. But, hypothetically speaking, if I was faced with the flood of a lifetime, I would shoot my animals before I left versus leaving them behind to drown and or starve and then drown. Humane versus inhumane. That's what I have to consider.

In a fire, I will get my children out and get myself out. I would open kennel doors on the way out and pray the dogs are able to get themselves out. But they are on their own when it comes to our fire evacuation plan.

[joanasevilyboaz]

During Katrina, we had no children and were only under a voluntary evacuation. But not only do most places not allow dogs, very very few allow "pit bulls"....especially a lot of them. Trying to evacuate during that time was just not an option.

Now that I have 3 young children, my decisions have much more at stake. I will do whatever the heck I could to get me, my family, and my animals out of there, but as much as this hurts to say, at the end of the day I have to do what I have to do to keep my children and myself alive and safe. If it comes down to putting my children at severe risk in order to not leave the animals or leaving the animals to save my children, I will take my children.

Since I don't live as far south as I used to and not in danger of floods, the reality of something like this ever happening is slim to none. But, hypothetically speaking, if I was faced with the flood of a lifetime, I would shoot my animals before I left versus leaving them behind to drown and or starve and then drown. Humane versus inhumane. That's what I have to consider.

In a fire, I will get my children out and get myself out. I would open kennel doors on the way out and pray the dogs are able to get themselves out. But they are on their own when it comes to our fire evacuation plan.

Very good post. It seems as if you have put a lot of thought into what would happen. Sorry you had to experience Katrina and those floods, that sucks. I know the flooding we experienced this year doesn't even compare. I know several people were having to be rescued by boat and one woman was rescued by seadoo. Her house went up in flames and she had no where to go. Thankfully a neighbor by chance saw went up her direction on the sea doo (he was making sure they still would run because he was going to leave) and he happened to see her house in flames. He got her and her friend and the two dogs all on the sea doo and within minutes the house exploded. Its a scary thing, that people will risk their lives just to save the pets. But they do.

I could not risk my families life and well being for an animal, but I sure as heck would do everything in my power to take Sasha with me. Even if it meant my husband and daughter having the hotel room or staying in the shelter they provide and me sleeping in the car with the dog.


Let me see if I can find that story from the flood. There were a couple interesting rescues regarding people and their animals. I'll see if I can find them and post them.

---------- Post added at 01:41 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:34 PM ----------

I'll admit though as much rain that came down as fast as it did, there was no time really to prepare to evacuate. Flooding happened in one area within an hour. That area which we were headed to was about an hour to an hour 15 minutes away from us well We were almost caught in it. All they were predicting were tornados and we were on our way to the mall there. I got a call from my mom saying stay home they are under some tornado warnings there and try to go back later. We had just pulled out of our parkinglot. So we went on back in. And within an hour to an hour and a half there was footage of the mall and parts of the interstate already shut down where we were going due to flooding. No tornados but it flooded. And the next day and a half brought the worst unexpected nightmare our area had ever seen. We knew it could happen and if it ever happened it would be bad. But it was nothing any of us expected to see in our lifetime. Never in my life was I so happy to have a upperstory apartment. Thankfully we were on a hill to begin with. But the bridges flooded out. We live on the border of two towns. You turn out and you couldn't even go a mile down the road to the right. The road was washed out. And you could only go 2 miles to the left and that bridge was out.

[Ecurrexchangess]

Hurricanes are basically the issue for us. When we got hit by Charlie, we stayed. Then another came, we left and went to stay with family in SC. My Aunt was currently remodeling her home so she didn't mind 10 dogs and a cat being in it since the new floors weren't put in yet. Now that is redone, she wouldn't want them in the house, but would still probably let them stay outside. Getting there was a lot of fun. I had one drugged up cat stuck in a van with 10 dogs (2 Dobermans, 3 Greyhounds, 1 Min Pin, 1 Chihuahua, 2 Italian Greyhounds, and 1 JRT mix). Then we got hit by another hurricane while in the van on the way home, it had gone thru FL and looped around and came back and hit us again! SOOOOOOO MUCH FUN! The water was almost up the windows on the van, I couldn't even open the door for a while!

Now we have dogs that don't get along, so not sure what we would do. My Dad will NOT allow dogs at his house, neither will my Granny. Most of my family are not animal people.

I guess I would stay with the dogs and hope for the best.

[joanasevilyboaz]

Hurricanes are basically the issue for us. When we got hit by Charlie, we stayed. Then another came, we left and went to stay with family in SC. My Aunt was currently remodeling her home so she didn't mind 10 dogs and a cat being in it since the new floors weren't put in yet. Now that is redone, she wouldn't want them in the house, but would still probably let them stay outside. Getting there was a lot of fun. I had one drugged up cat stuck in a van with 10 dogs (2 Dobermans, 3 Greyhounds, 1 Min Pin, 1 Chihuahua, 2 Italian Greyhounds, and 1 JRT mix). Then we got hit by another hurricane while in the van on the way home, it had gone thru FL and looped around and came back and hit us again! SOOOOOOO MUCH FUN! The water was almost up the windows on the van, I couldn't even open the door for a while!

Now we have dogs that don't get along, so not sure what we would do. My Dad will NOT allow dogs at his house, neither will my Granny. Most of my family are not animal people.

I guess I would stay with the dogs and hope for the best.

Thats scary. I hate Hurricanes but atleast the nice thing is you have warning. Unlike Tornadoes.
I've been in 2 hurricanes, and almost a 3rd. Why on earth when they say a hurricane is coming, we kept driving on toward it is besides me.

I was in Hurricane Hugo back in 89. I was just a kid so I don't remember it real well but it was scary. We were on our way to the beach. We were driving through SC near the beach shortly after it made landfall on our way to the condo. Like I said I don't remember much about it. Why we kept driving into it I don't know. My grandfather does stuff like that though.

The other Hurricane I was in hit while I was at Disney World. Hurricane Erin in 95. I slept through it at the hotel. I'm not sure if it was still a Hurricane when it passed through Orlando or just a tropical storm. I know it went from Hurricane Status to Tropical Storm back to Hurricane as it crossed over FL. I don't really remember it but I kept praying that we would just turn around and go home and go to disney another time the whole 15 hour ride to Orlando. There was litterally a report about the Hurricane every 20 minutes on the radio.

The final one was Hurricane Charley in 2004. Maditory Evacuation started on day 3 of our vacation on the FL panhandle. A waitress at Hooters actually told us to leave about 4am if we didn't we wouldn't get out before the storm hit because traffic would be horrible if we waited until the evacuation time. We left at 3:30am. And the storm made landfall at the mandatory evacuation was to begin where we were at. We were already back home thankfully.

We were almost in Ivan as well. We were going to go back down that weekend for another trip since our first trip got cut short. Thankfully we didn't go.

Then our cruise fell between a Hurricane and Tropical storm. We actually Followed The Storm to each of our destinations. We had a run in with it on the way to Mexico from FL.

I'm starting to think I might be a bad weather magnet. Best not to travel with me.

---------- Post added at 02:55 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:48 PM ----------

Thankfully no pets involved in any of those.

[Cersdog]

I would never leave my pets. If anything should happen my dog, cat, 2 ferrets and 2 parakeets would leave the house with me. The fish tank would have to stay behind cause i don't think i can lift a 100gallon reef tank.

[Ternneowns]

For Katrina I threw my dogs in the truck and off I went. Now I have a generator and all the other supplies so Im never leaving again.

[Qwjyrgij]

Living in south Florida, we've been told to evacuate several times for hurricanes. We never do because we have no way to transport our four dogs and nowhere to go anyway. Not to mention the fact we could evacuate into the storm just as easily as away.

So, we've hardened the house and are well prepared to stick it out. Installed a whole house generator, stock up on food and water, close up the shutters and ride it out. Three times now we've been without power for 10 days or more. Not pleasant but we get by and the dogs are safe with us.

Hurricanes are scary as hell.

[cwgwowcom]

As someone who lived in NOLA for Katrina...they come with me. Period. This is why I refuse to have more animals than I can fit into my car comfortably. For Katrina, we packed up the 3 cats and 1 dog and drove until we found a place to stay - ended up in Indiana for 2 weeks, then Ohio for 3 months. I evacuated again in 2007 for Gustav with all the animals, and again did pretty much the same thing, high-tailing it to Indiana where I could stay with friends.

Unfortunately, not all people have the means that we had, and that is where the problem came...I think part of responsibly owning an animal is being responsible for it at ALL times, even in disasters. But that's just me, seeing that we are STILL dealing with the animal problems from over 5 years ago. Packs of dogs still roam streets, and have litter after litter of puppies to replace them, there's a feral cat colony about every 6 blocks in some places. The amount of money spent to this day and number of animals euthanized could have easily been saved had the disaster preparation been in place to take animals as well as humans into shelters, or provided money BEFORE FEMA had to come in to assist with costs. Not everyone has a credit card with available credit to be reimbursed later by FEMA...

I know a great many people left their animals for one reason or another, especially cats. A lot of cats did survive, especially when their owners left food and their house didn't flood - but not without emotional and behavioral reprecussions. I'd never leave my cat...I love that death-plotting ankle scratcher to bits. And it goes without saying...Rigby will DEFINITELY ABSOLUTELY be in that car with me. Screw personal belongings - the important things are in the trunk, the animals are in the front.

[joanasevilyboaz]

I ask because I remember when the flood hit a lot of people were forced to evacuate and leave their pets behind. Other people refused to evacuate because the shelters wouldn't let them bring their pets with them and they felt they had no where else to go, so they would stay and end up needing rescuing themselves and sometimes even then the dogs couldn't come.

I know when Katrina hit a lot of dogs were left behind in that situation as well.

My question is, if a disaster were to strike what would you do to ensure your pets safety?

[gIWnXYkw]

i have a boat, MRE's lbs of dog food, ill be fine. lol