Evacuation plans

Have you ever thought about how you would get your cats out of the house in an emergency? For example, if there were a fire, how would you make sure they escaped. What if there were a flood and you had to leave your home for some time? Could you simply pack your cat(s) into the car and go with them? Or do you have some other plan? I was just wondering because I realised that I have never really thought about this at all.

 

Excellent question and honestly I've never thought much about it either. Since we travel with our cat, we have a large carrier with padding, etc. that's very comfortable, so for natural disaster evacuations we'd just take her with us in that.

When it comes to fire, though... I'm not sure there's anything that can be done for that disaster plan. I think pets may run and hide in a situation like that and... well, I'll watch this thread because I really can't think of an option for preparation in that case and I'd like some ideas as well.

 

One plus side to my cats being creatures of habit, I always have a good idea of where they are. I don't have a set plan for emergencies, but my first thought would be to grab them and go. My bedroom flooded a month or so ago and Sibyl was on her perch in the room. It didn't get high enough to reach her, so I just had to run through the water and grab her, nothing more. With fires I would try my best to get both cats out, but I know for a fact that Alice, at least, would hide if it got hot, loud, and scary. Sometimes you just can't get them out and have to hope they protect themselves. I'm just hoping that, if it ever happens to us, I'll be able to locate both cats and get them in my car and to safety. Maybe I'll luck out and, if it happens, Alice will be like she is right now, asleep on the couch behind me. That way I'll be able to just grab her and go!

 

I have never thought about it before either. And it just occured to me that I have four large cats and only 2 cat carriers ... looks like I will be going to the pet store after work.