Preparedness for when

JayneC

Hi,

I think I would probably leave my cat out and the chicks too. If I could get back I would and the cat at least would probably hang around nearby and come home at some point. I figure if I leave them out they have a chance of fending for themselves, but if I left them indoors and I couldn't get back.... well....

Crazy dog would be a right PITA at an emergency center, she doesn't like strangers or other dogs... The cat would probably be less trouble:p

I guess if you've somewhere you could go it's not so bad but if you're going to have to go to an emergency shelter that's another matter.

Having said that, the cat would probably follow us, he often joins me on the dog walks:rotfl:and has tried to follow me to the shops. I had to bring him home as it's across a busy main road!

nuatha

rosiepup2000 wrote: »

Bob, I envy you having such a well-trained/calm cat! I know someone who takes their cat (and other animals) on holiday in a campervan; they can stop for lunch somewhere, open the door and the cat will sit quite happily outside and then get back in again when they're ready to go. No hope of that with mine!


Thriftwizard, I wonder whether that might be the best thing - to leave them here with supplies of food and water upstairs and hope I would be able to get back to check on them reasonably soon. Goes against the grain to leave them, though. I've had semi-feral cats before who have adopted me, but the semi-ferals in my experience tend to be fairly street-wise and able to look after themselves. My present two are spoiled housecats from a rescue centre and not street-wise at all.

Our previous cats traveled wherever Herself would take them and over the years has always had cats who would travel. Our current herd have only been with us 4 weeks so are still getting used to us. We hope that they will at least be happy travelling to MiL's, who is our usual cat sitter for holidays etc. MiL's is one of our two preferred bug out locations. We're several months away from working that one out, in the meantime if its feasible I'll stay with the cats - if its not feasible, then we will find out whether they travel with us. Abandoning them is not an option we would consider. (Though the most likely evac scenario here is a gas leak/explosion)

Charis

Re. Care.org, Could this be one avenue our collected information was intended to go down?

GreyQueen

Morning all.

Been up at silly o'clock and sloped down the block to check on the bike shed. Still unmolested (the bike itself is still in the living room). Last night I removed some preptastic stuff from the shed and brought it into the flat itself. For peace of mind, which is what criminals rob you of, the barstewards.

Re cats, if my parents had to abandon their home, it wouldn't be a flood unless a substantial amount of southern England is under sea water. They are over mile from the nearest water course, on land which wasn't even built on until the 1960s, being so far out from the ancient town centre. They are also up hill. If some other disaster came, one which meant that they couldn't take the cats, they would probably survive pretty well left to their own devices.

The cats are sisters, 10 years old this year. Wild Thing, as her nickname might suggest, is semi-feral and doesn't even come indoors for half the year. She looks exactly like a slightly-smaller Norwegian Forest Cat. Her sister, the Queen of Sheba, is fonder of her creature comforts but both are frighteningly efficient hunters. Delay returning to the homestead past a meal time and they will have self-served from the local bird life. They also have mice and once even a lizard.

The cats always drink outside from the drain cover even though there is water available indoors. They have various dens in the garden. They'd survive pretty handily. They are also rescues and extremely wary of strangers so no one would get near them and they would be uncatchable even by family. Given how distressed they become on their annual and very brief trip to the vet, it would be kinder to let them fend for themselves and hope that the family could return to their home later.

Of course, all cats are different, and if your home is awash, in a landscape which is awash, you need to get the cats out of there. Which for most animals will involve carry cases. Hopefully, most people have family or friends and maybe someone can foster their cat for the duration.

dragonette

Re: cats (quick post as exhausted) - myself and and my ex both have harness and lead for our cats, and often pop them in the front of the hoodie we're wearing for travelling. My lil one would be coming with me! Little option as indoor cat who would starve if left to fend for himself

Swampmonster

dragonette wrote: »

Re: cats (quick post as exhausted) - myself and and my ex both have harness and lead for our cats, and often pop them in the front of the hoodie we're wearing for travelling. My lil one would be coming with me! Little option as indoor cat who would starve if left to fend for himself

How cute being tucked in a hoodie. Adorable picture required please if you don't mind .

You can't tell I'm cat mad can you

pineapple

GreyQueen wrote: »

Morning all.

Been up at silly o'clock

Me too. At 5am I woke to hear the dog vomiting I pushed her off the bed in the dark - being a tad surprised by her reluctant semi comatose body - rushed her downstairs and chucked her out the door. Then I gave her an antacid (which I've been advised to do for her condition).
But when I checked indoors and out - not a sign of vomit. Was probably having a waking dream. Poor dog!
Still more unbelievable scenes on TV this morning. Maybe us Northerners will end up having Southerners billeted with us like they did in the war!:eek:

mardatha

Watching Sky News and saw some houses built on stilts somewhere on the Thames.. wonder if that's the way to go if you live down there? Somebody's granny told him that they stopped dredging "when Thatcher left". If we had a viable Opposition ( not that I'm a Labour voter) then they could use this to try and get rid of this lot of wasters.
I think it's a lesson to show us that we ned to work with Nature, not just think we can do what we like. What a bloody mess the south is in, the poor people.

pineapple

On the news this morning someone was demonstrating how saturated the water table was by opening up a bore hole to show the water spurting out. :eek: He said that even if it stopped raining now, there would flooding danger till May owing to the risk (wait for this) of ancient rivers opening up - and there being nowhere for them to go because the land has been built over.
There was a name for these rivers but I can't remember it
There was also a risk of groundwater flooding.
Edit: Here's a link with a video of that particular Sky News Report.
http://web.orange.co.uk/article/news/uk_floods_could_last_months_scientist_warns

GreyQueen

pineapple wrote: »

On the news this morning someone was demonstrating how saturated the water table was by opening up a bore hole to show the water spurting out. :eek: He said that even if it stopped raining now, there would flooding danger till May owing to the risk (wait for this) of ancient rivers opening up - and there being nowhere for them to go because the land has been built over.
There was a name for these rivers but I can't remember it

Is is this sort of thing?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subterranean_river

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subterranean_rivers_of_London

I knew about the River Fleet in London but hadn't heard of some of these. Provincial City is on a river, as are most ancient settlements, and bulky goods used to come up from the coast in pre-rail and pre-lorry days. Nowadays it's just pleasure-boating.