The Wuhan coronavirus has reportedly killed tens of thousands … of household pets. Not by direct infection, but by dehydration and starvation. Between quarantine travel restrictions and admission to hospitals, tens of thousands of Chinese citizens have been unexpectedly kept away from home. And who is taking care of their pets in their absence? To often, the answer is No One.
Suppose something bad happened where you live. Not End Of The World As We Know it bad; but enough to keep you away from home for a few days. We’ll assume for the moment that your Get Home Bag, used with your knowledge and fitness, will take care of you. But will your pets be ok? Here are some ways to make sure they are.
Your pets may always be sad you’re away. You don’t want them sad And starving.
Pets home alone
Pets, service animals, working dogs (or other beasties)– humans live with other species for many reasons. Why doesn’t matter for this discussion; just the assumption that it’s worth some effort to prep to keep *them* thriving in bad times. And as to the chewed shoes, or fertilizer left on your bed to announce the beastie’s displeasure with your absence, you’re on your own. This is about making sure the invited animals in your home have their needs met if you are kept away.
Water, temperature control (in some climates) and food are the big three needs. How long does it take for the needs to become dire? Well, Wuhan had been under strict quarantine for less than a week when I read the pet report; and already about fifteen thousand animals were reported dead.
Temperature control
If the AC goes out midsummer in Florida, how long would it take your house to bake your cat if there’s no one to open the windows? If blizzard traps you at work and cuts off the electric heat at your house, how would your short-haired little dog fare? Or your parrot? When I was young and clueless, I had a pet parakeet that lost a couple of toes to cold. The parakeet was living in the same room I was. I just hadn’t realized how very temperature sensitive she was, and assumed whatever was comfortable for me was comfortable for her.
What can you do about this? Auxiliary heat is the biggest thing in my part of the country. Salty and I have a wall-mounted, ventless propane heater we use as our emergency backup. Problem solved; for pets, pipes, and us if we’re home.
Auxiliary cooling is harder to arrange, being so power-hungry. Not everyone could afford a solar backup. We sure can’t. What we could do though is leave the door to the basement open in hot weather. It’s significantly cooler down there. Is there a part of your house that’s naturally insulated by ground or shade? Can you arrange to allow your pets access to that space at will?
Water
One of the things I miss least about keeping stock is all the effort to get them liquid water in the winter. Even when there’s unlimited snow, the critters can’t really afford to eat it to get their water. It takes too much energy to melt and heat. So that’s your job, companion human.
Even when the local feral cats shun my cheap dry food, they empty the bowl of thawed water on cold days.*
If you don’t keep outside animals, you may not know of the lovely invention of heated water bowls. They have temperature sensors and run just enough to keep the contents liquid. (Except, in my experience, in truly bitter weather where even the daily highs have negative signs.) No help with a power outage, but would help in some situations.
If your region isn’t that cold, the solution to this one’s pretty simple. Put out much bigger water bowls than the pets need for a day. But are you doing that? Also make the bowls too heavy to tip over. (If you have a pet goat…sorry. They’ll find some way to mess it up. But if you have goats, you knew that.)
Food for the pets
How hard this one is depends on how big an eater your pet is. One reason miners used mules instead of horses is that a mule wouldn’t eat itself sick if you gave it three days of rations at once so you could leave the mine for the weekend. A horse would.
If there’s a food your pets will eat in a pinch, but Only in a pinch, you can leave out plenty. We do that with cheap dry food for the feral cats. We can’t stand to see them starve, but when we put out scraps we attract way too many. Putting out only the cheap dry stuff keeps them from starving but doesn’t support a population explosion. They’d rather do better for themselves.
If your pets like ALL THE FOOD, you might try an automated feeder. Some of my friends have had success with them; some have had their clever and greedy furry friends outwit the metering systems. Your milage may vary.
Sitters for pets
What got me thinking of this situation was, you’ve guessed, the tragedies in Wuhan associated with the coronavirus quarantine. One handicapped young man even died because both his caregivers were taken to hospital, and no one checked up on him for days! Many people in Wuhan were said to be begging neighbors or even random strangers to break into their homes to care for the pets. Animal care charities have mobilized to provide this sort of service to those who can’t get home.
Is there any neighbor you trust enough to offer a key and make an agreement with? If so, is this a person who’s home most of the time? Not much help if they are in your same boat.
If there’s no one you trust that much, how about just talking about the possibility and sharing contact information with a neighbor? You could hide a key, and at need contact the person with information on how to find the key. That wouldn’t work for all situations (phones down for example), but it’d be better than nothing.
Sidebar: Hiding keys
A hidden key can be very, very handy in a pinch. If you’re dumb about it, it can also be very handy to a thief. Please, please don’t do the obvious things such as doormats, ledges near the door, or the specially designed little rocks.
We wanted a hidden key out at The Place so we could get into the cabin without breaking anything if we ended up there keyless. Here’s how we did it.
First, we got a weatherproof container for the key. It won’t corrode, but we didn’t want it jammed with dirt either.
Next, we found a memorable spot that could be described well enough that a stranger could find it with a description … but only with the description. It was:
- Not very near the door. Nobody’s going to do a thorough search 75 yards away.
- A natural feature. Human artifacts attract human attention.
- In contact with a big and light-colored object (ok, it’s a rock). We may need the key at night, or after a snow. A hiding place so great we can’t find the key is a little too great.
- Placed so that we could describe it — say, if we wanted to offer a family member access when we wouldn’t be there.
- Out of sight. Even if you’re standing a foot away from the hiding spot, you wouldn’t notice the keyholder unless you were looking at the far side of the rock under a little ledge.
We love our pets
And by ‘we’ I basically mean ‘humans’. We humans who are preppers want to keep our pets safe, too. Here’s an official invitation for you to consider your situation, and do what you can do. If you can’t get home for a few days, you’ll definitely want to find your pets healthy and excited to see you home. Even if they did eat your shoes because they were mad you’re late.
*Thanks for the image to Sebastian Ballard [CC BY-SA (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)]