4 Ways to Protect Your Pets from Fire
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A couple of weeks at around midnight, the piercing sound of the apartment building's fire alarm woke me up from a deep, deep sleep. I immediately woke up my daughter, grabbed our dog Angel, my purse and ran out the door. Before leaving the apartment, I tried to corral my cats but the loud sound scared Daisy May and Gus so much both hid under my bed. This situation left me nervous and afraid for my feline babies. How do I protect my pets, particularly my cats, if there's a fire? I had no idea what I could or should do, so I went to Google to find the answers.
Here's what I've learned, I hope it helps you to protect your furry family members.
1. Place pet emergency pet stickers or decals on your windows or doors. These stickers will let the fire department or building management know pets are in the apartment should an emergency occur when you're not a home. I've ordered two from Amazon. One to place on my sliding glass door near my balcony and I plan to place the other one on my front window. They are fairly inexpensive, you can order your own decal using the links below.
2. Make sure your neighbors know you have pets. Seems simple enough right? Well, once that incident occurred I brought my cats up in more conversations with my neighbors because I've never mentioned my cats to them before this, just my dog. We're always outside walking our dogs and honestly my cats just never came up. If you have a cat, bird, iguana or gerbil make sure neighbors know they exist because they could help save that animal's life should an emergency situation arise at your home!
3. Know where your pets sleep or hang out. My cats love to sleep under my bed; it's their safe space. And as I mentioned earlier that's where Daisy May and Gus hid when the fire alarm scared the heck out of them. If a fire ever occurred I know where to find them to get them out of the apartment.
4. Have routine fire or emergency drills. Since the incident, my daughter and I have instituted a family fire drill. We have a plan for these situations: grab the dog, purse, and cats from under the bed. To prepare the cats for this we've started running drills. We randomly pick up the cats and run to the front door. It's been freaking them out but my hope is that this will become a routine and their fear will slowly subside.
That's my plan for now. In all honestly, as long as my daughter and my furbabies make it out of any potential tragedy okay, I'll be happy. Our fur babies mean the world to us, losing any of them would be devastating.
Do you have an emergency plan for your family and furbabies? If so please share, my plan is evolving and I'm open to adding new steps to it.
