Emergency Plan for Cats

I'm originally from New Orleans and it was heartbreaking to see all of the pets who got left to fend for themselves during Hurricane Katrina because the owners had no plan for if a disaster hit. Rescued people could go to the shelters, or even evacuate there beforehand, but cats were not welcome there, so people had to leave them.
It really made me think about planning for a disaster- thinking about who could take them in for a little while, how to get them to safety, etc.
Who else has a cat emergency plan? (And if not, please think about it...)

 

I have not thought about this beyond medical emergency's and how to pay the vet in case of medical emergency. I cant imagine having to ever leave then behind but after reading your post I am thinking, if need be, who do i know that would take and care for the tribe. Thank you for bringing this up.

 

I do have a basket on standby. It has a lid on it. I use it to take my cats to the vet. So in an emergency, that's where I am going to put my cats before taking them with me.

 

No, I have never thought about that. Thanks, that is something I do need to be thinking about.

 

You can make things even easier if you can teach your cats to sleep in the same place every night. So in an emergency you will just know where they are. Mine are no problem because they sleep with me.

 

It's not something I have thought about and hope it will never come up! I like the point about cats sleeping in the same place though - all my cats sleep in my bedroom at night, either on the bed or nearby so I do know where they are.

 

I think depending on what happened, I would take the cats to my dad's house. Chances are, I would be hanging out there as well so it would not be too odd for them.

 

Fortunately, I have a fairly large car with seats that fold down and carriers for everyone (except Foxy, who has a seatbelty-harness thing). It wouldn't be pretty, but we could get out of town safely if something Katrina-traumatic happened.

As for smaller emergencies, the cats basically live in our finished garage, so I can isolate them there if I need to (and that's where they run when they get stressed so that's probably where I'd find them in an emergency). I also have floor-to-ceiling sashed windows in all of my bedrooms, so we could use those as exits if we needed to.

 

I would suggest keeping some cat leashes handy. So if you take your cats to some strange place, you can let them do their business with leashes on. Sometimes cats can wander off into strange places and get lost. Or get startled and bolt off somewhere.

 

I have thought about this and my parents live close by and have a big car. Though, they have quite some pets of their own.
Luckily I know a lot of pet lovers who wouldn't mind helping out when needed. It's good to give these things a thought and plan ahead,
even though it can be difficult because the idea alone of losing your pets in a disaster terrifies me.