Pets Are People Too

Plan now for your pet’s care during a Tropical Storm

The Valley is now over a month into the hurricane season, and it‘s been an uneventful, unexciting trip so far. However, every local and government emergency response agency is still telling us how to take care of our families and properties should an unwelcome late season tropical storm pay South Texas a visit.

In anticipation of the “Big One”, we should already have stores of emergency food, drinking water, radios and batteries, extra can of gas and our papers in order. You’ve done that already, right?

But, hey! How about the family’s cuddly, little fuzz balls–your family pets! Your faithful Poodle and neurotic cat; They are people too, needing your careful planning and provisions for their safety and health. Domestic pets of all sizes are dependent on their human masters like any other member of the family. Being domesticated, they have lost their innate, survival skills, inherited or acquired in the woods and forests.

So, it is up to us, their surrogate parents to provide for them, as best we can, a safe, secure place to weather the storm.

The first step is to decide if the family will stay in the Valley or evacuate if the National Weather Service upgrades their Weather Watch to a full-blown Weather Warning. That means that a major tropical storm is headed directly for your address, and that you have maybe 24 to 48 hours to make final preparations.

If the decision is to stay in the Valley and tough it out, you’ll need to gather enough food, water and any medicines your pet needs to last him at least a week. If the decision is to evacuate with your pets, it should be noted that not all motels along the road will accept animal in the rooms. Check this out before leaving and make a reservation if you can.

If the decision is for the human family only to evacuate, and leave the pets behind, then immediately check out Valley animals shelters, pet motels for reservation beforehand.

Animal hospitals and various Humane Societies can be of help in locating a place for the pooch.

Whether the Valley is spared another hurricane-free tropical storm season this year or not, it always pays to have all your plans thought-out and in place should we get the unwanted, unwelcome Official Hurricane Warning that we are in for it. So, now is the time to put into action your family plans should we need it, including the fuzzy-faced family members so dependent on us.

Remember in your plans that “pets are people too.” They are depending on your judgment. Time to think now about your little bundles of joy, Fluffy or Rover or whomever. You’ll sleep a lot easier knowing the whole family is ready for whatever is in store. Or, as the Marines always say: Semper Paratus.