Come on, Irene!

Irene.  Here she comes.  24 hours from now she’ll be banging on our door.  What are you doing to get ready?

We are not the type to over prepare.  We have a good amount of canned food and a bit of bottled water.  We filled up our gas tank, and have batteries lying around for flash lights.  That’s about it.  We probably should be doing a bit more preparing, but since we’re not out on the Eastern Shore we’re not too worried.  However we should be a little more worried maybe– the inner harbor is only about 1000 ft from our front door (thank goodness we are on a hill!)

This is however, our first major “State of Emergency” with a pet.  There’s been tons of awesome advice out there about how to prepare for a natural disaster with a pet.  Most importantly?  DON’T LEAVE THEM BEHIND.  If it’s dangerous for us, it’s dangerous for them.  My gut tells me, though, the people reading blogs about pets are not the type to make that poor decision.

So after that basic point, there were some things that I read that I really should take note about (and maybe you will too!)

~Have identifying information easily accessible for your pet (i.e. rabies tags, microchip number, etc).

~Make sure that microchip is updated!  (call NOW if it’s not)

~Have an extra leash and collar

~ Plan ahead.  Where are you going to go, with your pet, if they are to call for an evacuation?  Have you set up with friends/family out of the evacuation zone?  Maybe you could board your pet in safe area?  You could also look into pet-friendly hotels.  Do not wait till the last minute.  (Check out Gopetfriendly.com to see where you can stay WITH your pet—  best option anyway, right?)

And then there are the basics: water, food, bowl and poop bags.  What more does a doggie need?  Maybe a basic blanket and a chew toy.  If a crate is helpful, and you have room, bring that too.  (We never travel without it).

Hopefully this is all a lot more information and stuff then we need.  But better safe than sorry, right?  You can check out the Humane Society’s page for their tips (much more thorough than mine!)

We’re prepping in another way too– We’ll be taking in one of the dogs from BARCS tomorrow morning as they are evacuating the shelter as they too are right along the water.

Looks like our halfway house is going to be quite busy! ; )

Stay safe.  And hunker down with your pets.