they are not forgotten during this hurricane......

[madrchsod]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yAjhi0a_Pgc&feature=related


they will be with them

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92dNvrzzcxE&feature=related


if i go they go

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGMR99xPfRc&feature=related


they will not be left behind to die

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCjm8WHNkt4&feature=related


this time they can take their family with them


http://www.muttshack.org/

http://animalrescueneworleans.org/

[kdmorris]

1. That was the only thing I ever asked Mel Martinez for

He's my scumbag Senator, but even he could get behind making allowances for animals during evacuations. The bill was passed in 2006, but I forget what it was called. States have to make allowances for pets now so that people don't die because they cannot bear to leave their pets behind.

[tblue37]

4. But if you have more than one pet, you have to choose which one(s) will be left to die.

I could never do it. Never.

[lonestarnot]

5. What? They only permitted 1 pet?

[tblue37]

8. I read it somewhere--a link from HuffPo, I think.

http://oneheartforpeace.blogspot.com/2008/08/waiting-in-new-orleans-now.html
"Seniors worry about their social security checks, due the first of the month. Others worry about leaving behind pets. (One semi-rural area announced that each person getting on the buses could bring one pet, a dog or cat, no roosters, no pigs)."

On another blog a poster commented that her family was also told they would only be allowed one pet.

[kdmorris]

7. What??

Are you serious??? Only one pet?

I could never do that, either. We have 4 pets and there's no chance in hell that I would leave any of them here to die alone. I would truthfully rather die with them then let their last hours on earth be spent alone. People without pets probably don't understand that, but to me, it's the same thing as asking me which of my three daughters I would leave behind.

[Chovexani]

10. I completely understand

I could never leave my cat to die.

[tblue37]

12. I couldn't either, and I have three of them.

My pets are my closest friends--and I assure you I don't have any shortage of human friends in my life. When my parents died, I grieved over them, but we were not close, and they were not part of my day-to-day, moment-to-moment life. But every time I lose a pet, it creates a gaping, agonizing hole in every part of my daily life. My pets live long, healthy, happy lives, because I do everything in my power to make sure that they do so, just as I would for my kids. (Well, except that I won't pay for college for them. If my cats want to go to college, they will need to get a job.)

Right now I am paying down a $1000 vet bill I incurred because I wouldn't just have my 15 (almost 16 now) year old cat put to sleep when she became very ill last spring. We thought it must be stomach cancer, but instead of just having her put to sleep, I let them do exploratory surgery. Turned out she didn't have any cancer at all (YAY!), but she did have inflammatory bowel disease, so we are treating her for that and she is doing much better. At age 15, she still could go at any time. I mean, she is fine right now, but her kidneys could quit on her, she could have a heart attack or stroke, or she could develop cancer. Nevertheless, I am grateful even if she doesn't last as long as it takes me to pay off this bill (I will pay it off by Christmas, I hope), because she got one more summer of lying on the porch in the sun, of getting petted and loved and brushed.

I had to have a 19-year-old cat put to sleep 3 years ago a few weeks after she developed a fast-moving, painful jaw cancer. But a year before the cancer, that same cat had a stroke that left her back end largely paralyzed. I spent several weeks carrying her wherever she needed to go and devising kitty-cat physical therapies66 for her, and managed to help her get back most of the strength and control in her back end. She couldn't jump as well as she did before, but that last year of her life she was as loving and playful and happy as she had ever been. I am an extremely busy person, but I was more than happy to devote that much time to my darling Gabby. And I was grateful for the fact that I got one more year with her.

BTW, I have 10 websites. One of them is called Pet Tales, and on it I post funny true anecdotes about animals, mostly pets that I have been involved with. There are several stories there about my little Gabby (and all my other pets). Perhaps you animal lovers would enjoy reading some of them--or the one about the black panther than peed on me, or the alligator that made my (the 24-year-old) son pee on himself when it charged him and almost got him down in the Florida Everglades, or the 9 1/2-foot boa constrictor I took to my kids' grade school to prove that certain snakes have visible (though vestigial) legs and feet. There is a sidewinder on a friend's desk, a parakeet (budgie) with a foul (fowl?) mouth, and many other amusing anecdotes. If you do visit there from here, let me know. I am always glad to see that people from my online watering holes have stopped by to read on my sites.

My other sites cover a lot of other topics: grammar and usage, essay-writing, poetry, teaching, parenting, ADD/ADHD, deafness, funny stories about kids, and other topics. If you visit my Pet Tales site and want to check out the others, just use the list of links to the other sites that you will find on the homepage.

[Booster]

2. Ok, ok, now I'm blubbering like a baby. After Katrina, I donated

directly to the New Orleans Animal Shelter, and still do, but I will bookmark this post for the two organizations that are mentioned. I salute all the people in the videos who volunteered - what a great bunch of humans.

[tblue37]

3. I read that people were only allowed one pet per family. I have three cats.

If I were in a situation where I had to choose to take one with me and leave the other two to die, I would not be able to leave. It would be like Sophie's Choice. As easy to decide which of my children to leave behind!

They need to help people evacuate all of their pets, even if it means starting the evacuation earlier.

Most people are able to load up their cars, pets and all, and leave. The ones who are restricted to just one pet would be those who have no car, no way out but with the help of the government.

But Cuba, frickin' Cuba, regularly evacuates all of their people and their pets and their farm animals ahead of hurricanes.

Of course, there were those who packed up their cars and left ahead of Katrina, locking their pets in the house because they believed they would be gone only for a day or so. That's because they didn't really take the danger seriously. Their own evacuation was esentially pro forma.

I can't bear to think of the thousands of pets that died, and the terrible suffering they all went through, even the ones who were finally rescued.

[lonestarnot]

6. Nope couldn't do that either! Those fuckwads!

[roody]

9. Frickin' Cuba---would that be blessed Cuba?

They evacuate their refrigerators too! They take care of each other. They learned it in school.

[tblue37]

11. When I say "frickin'" there, what I mean is that this is a

third-world country. Its economy is depressed because of the sanctions we have imposed for decades. Certainly Cuba doesn't have the resources or the wealth the US has. Yet Cuba manages to evacuate everyone and everything in the path of a hurricane. Occasionally they suffer a loss of life, as I think they did this time, but it is always minimal. I think I read that 3 people died in Cuba this time. Certinly this does not compare to the more than a that we lost because of Katrina.

So "frickin'" was just for emphasis. It was not a criticism of Cuba but an underscoring of the fact that if little Cuba, with such limited resources and no help, could manage such preparedness and such competence iprotecting its people and their pets and farm animals (and refrigerators!), then there is absolutely no excuse for our failure to do so.